Code Lyoko: Generation, Book 3: Discoveries
by TechnoSam
Summary: As the Lyoko Warriors continue the fight against XANA with their new ally, secrets are discovered that change the course of the struggle. But are the changes for good or for worse? You can only find out by reading Book 3 of Code Lyoko Generation!
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to Book 3 of the Code Lyoko Generation Series! This is projected to be the longest and best yet, so hold on tight! If you have not read the first two books, I would highly recommend doing so before reading this one.**

**You'll be seeing a lot darker themes in this Book, thus the T rating.**

_**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Code Lyoko, nor do I claim to by writing this series. Code Lyoko is owned by MoonScoop, not by me. No copyright infringement intended.**_

**While the idea of Code Lyoko belongs to MoonScoop, I invented the unique characters in this book, and came up with many of the unique plots. These are my ideas, so please talk to me before using them.**

**As with the rest of my books, FanFiction dot net is not the best place to view them. The best way is in PDF form, but since Book 3 is not yet complete, it's not available in this format yet. You can visit tsclg dot wikia dot com for more info on this series, and where to find it in the Code Lyoko Evolved forum, where I update primarily.**

**The CL-E Forum is at "cl-evolved dot com"**

**Also, check my profile for links to the PDFs of the first two books.**

**I appreciate any comments and input you may have. Please let me know of them in the reviews. Thanks for reading!**

Code Lyoko Generation:

Book 3: Discoveries

Written by: TechnoSam

Illustrated by: lastmanstanding

Prologue

**June 6th, 2008 AD**

**4:37 PM**

**The Hermitage**

Jeremy knocked on the door to the Hermitage. Recently, Franz, Anthea, and the gang had finished refurbishing the place, and it looked almost new.

"Ah, Jeremy," Franz said as he opened the door. "Come on in. Aelita's in her room."

Jeremy was sixteen now. These visits were not uncommon, especially since Aelita moved back into the old house with her parents.

"Thanks," Jeremy said politely. "But she's not the reason that I came today."

Franz let out a small sigh. "I knew this day would come," I said. He looked down at his watch and saw the date. There was no denying it.

"Call the others," Franz instructed Jeremy. "This is long overdue."

Jeremy did so, quickly sending a text message to each of the Lyoko Warriors – including William – asking them to come over to the Hermitage.

When he had finished, Aelita walked down the stairs. "Hey, Jeremy!" She said. She walked over to him and they hugged in greeting. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"You'll find out in a minute," He responded vaguely.

**June 6th, 2008 AD**

**5:02 PM**

**The Hermitage**

Franz sat in the living room on the couch. Beside him were Aelita and Anthea. Ulrich and Yumi sat directly in front of Franz, while Odd and William kneeled a little ways back.

As they gathered, Yumi smiled as Anthea rocked her son in her arms. He had been born almost two years ago, soon after she was recovered from the Network. Anthea was pregnant when she emerged from the Scanners, but no one knew any more than that.

Yumi's smile faded as she recognized the serious nature of this meeting.

"I assume the reason that Jeremy wanted me to talk to you all is due to today's date. It's been fourteen years..."

All of the assembled thought of what they had seen in Franz's video diary.

June 6th, 1994, Day 67. June 6th, 1994, Day 639. June 6th, 1994, Day 1265. June 6th, 1994, Day 2546. The day that Franz lived through 2546 times to create Lyoko and XANA. Everyone was wondering what he did during all that time, and what caused him to do so. Now it was time for the secret to be revealed.

"This is something that I should have told you all a long time ago, but we got distracted with rebuilding this house, returning to normal lives, and other things."

Franz paused, considering the weight of what he was about to say.

"Before I continue, let me say that this all happened in the past; it's finished. We have nothing to worry about."

Even as he said those words, he doubted himself. For the sake of his family and friends, he couldn't let that show.

"It all started so long ago..."

**March 4th, 1977 AD**

**11:12 PM**

**Paris, France**

Waldo Schaeffer was 18 years old. He had graduated college almost a year ago, surprising many with his technical genius. Already the holder of several patents, he showed an astounding amount of promise. A local company had implored him to accept a job in their software division. Given the salary they had offered him, there wasn't any way he could refuse.

Yes, he would have a high paying job, he could be secure in his position, and all was going well. At least, it would be... were it not for one little thing.

*Pop!* *Pop!* *Pop!*

Waldo ducked as he heard the assault rifle discharge. He skidded as he turned sharply into an alleyway, hoping to lose his pursuer.

He tripped and crashed into a trashcan, spilling its contents. The metallic noise was soon followed by the pounding of feet. He had given his position away!

Waldo squinted in the moonlight, trying to find his oppressor. Was that movement he saw? It was too dark to tell.

Taking a risk, he jumped up and sprinted off. Suddenly a hand caught his collar. They got me, he thought dreadfully. Then he felt the barrel of an AK-47 in his back, and he became even more frightened.

"Don't move," a gravelly voice said. "And don't make a sound."

Waldo couldn't have made any noise if he wanted to. The goon was choking off his air!

"If I let you breathe and you run for it, I'll put a round through your head, you got it?" The voice snarled.

Franz wordlessly nodded. There was no way out.

The brute dropped him to the ground and he stood up slowly, rubbing his throat.

"Where's the money!" His attacker demanded.

Franz knew exactly what he was talking about. Years ago, his family was very poor. His father died early of a dreadful sickness, and his mother was struggling to make ends meet. Waldo would never have been able to continue his schooling had it not been for this man. He had offered Waldo an enormous sum of money at 0% interest, and specified no time frame in which it must be paid back.

Waldo naively accepted the money and used it to take care of his family and go to college. But once he graduated with highest honor, this man began demanding Waldo return the money.

When he couldn't pay it back, the requests became increasingly violent. Tonight was not the first night a weapon had been fired in his direction.

"I don't have it," Waldo whispered. "I can't pay you back today."

The man grabbed the front of Waldo's collar and pulled him up to his face, nose to nose. "You're out of time, boy!"

"I'm sorry!" Franz began to thrash.

"You've had enough time to pay us back! I'm finished with you."

Franz braced himself for death, but it never came. "Beaudelaire!" A voice thundered.

Franz slowly opened one eye and looked over his captor's shoulder. A lone man stood in the entrance to the alley.

"Drop him," the voice sounded again.

Waldo was thrust to the ground once again. He hardly noticed the bruises.

The figure approached slowly. "Leon, Leon," he chastised. "How many times have I explained to you that our quarries are more valuable alive?"

Despite the man's civil tone, Leon Beaudelaire looked positively terrified. "Forgive me, Mr. Moreau," He muttered.

Moreau walked over to Waldo and grabbed him under his chin. "So you can't pay us back, hm?"

Waldo instantly understood Beaudelaire's terror. The man's eyes were like dark pits, his fingers as cold as ice. Something about this man resonated authority- the kind you feared.

Waldo shook his head without saying a word.

"Well then we have two options. The first is rather undesirable; it's that we kill you. The second may be more to your liking. I have a project that needs someone with your skills. If you'll work for me for a few years, I'll dismiss your debt."

"What if I refuse?" Waldo mustered up the courage to ask.

"We will kill you and your family... slowly. We don't want to have to do that, but we will if you leave us no other choice."

**March 6th, 1977 AD**

**8:00 AM**

**Location Unknown**

Sometime later, the bag was lifted from Waldo's head. He looked around and saw that he stood in a well-lit laboratory. Several men typed away on computers stationed at the four corners of the room, while others carried packages back and forth. Their contents and their purpose were not known to Waldo.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"No questions," Moreau ordered. "This is where you will be working for the next several years. We call this Project Carthage. Your expertise is needed, so get to work. The man in the white coat, Sebastien Dubois, will give you instructions."

With no further comments, Moreau left the room, leaving Waldo to an uncertain fate.

Waldo cautiously walked over to Sebastien. He looked Waldo's way and a smile lit his face. "Welcome!" He said cordially. "You are Waldo Schaeffer? I'm Sebastien Dubois. We'll be getting to know each other pretty well."

There was something amiss about Dubois' demeanor towards Waldo. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he didn't like it at all.

Waldo decided to take it in stride as best he could. Hopefully in a few years he could be done with this.

Dubois gave Waldo a tour of the facility, but Waldo sensed that much had been omitted. The descriptions given were very vague, and there wasn't much that could be inferred. Waldo gathered that an organization called "Green Phoenix," was behind this "Project Carthage."

Other than that, he knew that Project Carthage was centered on the Internet. He was not given any information about how they planned to use this project, but given his experience, Waldo suspected terrorism.

But what was he to do? Either work on their project, or let his family be killed. The project would go on without him, and regardless of whether he helped or not, it would be completed. So he chose to go along with it, if only to save his family. In one way, this was one of the wisest decisions he could have made.

Dubois dismissed Waldo with the reminder that the work day started at 0800 hours sharp. Waldo then settled down with his new partners to begin working on Carthage's AI.

**February 8th, 1979 AD**

**7:30 AM**

**Location Unknown**

Waldo jolted awake at the sound of his alarm. When he remembered where he was, he sadly got up to work again. He had adjusted to his new life as much as you ever could. As he got ready, he thought of the progress he had made over the last year or so.

The AI was all but complete, programmed with adaptability to be self-sufficient. Dubbed PC-54T4N by the Project manager, this AI was the most advanced that humanity had ever seen. Its full abilities remained untested, but Green Phoenix was highly satisfied with it.

On this day, a technician sprinted into Waldo's section of the complex shouting something unintelligible.

"It's incredible!" Waldo made out.

"What's all this about?" the supervisor demanded.

"We've made an incredible discovery!" The technician said excitedly. "Waldo, Matthieu, Isaac, you must come with me!"

Waldo looked at his two accomplices in confusion. They shrugged.

"Here," the excited man said, waving a piece of paper. "I have authorization from Moreau himself."

Upon inspection of the paper, the supervisor walked away, satisfied.

Unable to refuse, Waldo allowed himself to be escorted to the Quantum-Computer room by the man, whose name was Pierre. The four men stood in front of the computer in awe for a few moments. It was a magnificent construction.

"As you know, gentlemen," Pierre began, "this is the Quantum Computer that powers this operation. The AI you have designed 'lives,' in here. This computer accesses the Internet to attain our goals."

"Get to the point," Matthieu complained.

"But here's something we didn't know," Pierre's voice dropped to a stage-whisper. "Because of how this computer functions, a representation has been created for it on the World Information Network. This representation is more than we thought it first was... It's an entire virtual world!"

**August 12th, 1980 AD**

**2:07 PM**

**Project Carthage's Facility**

Waldo trembled as he stood in front of the Scanner. It was a huge, cylindrical structure that was made to transport a human into the digital world that was Project Carthage. It had taken their Project to an entirely new level.

Minutes earlier, the briefing had finished. A guinea pig was randomly selected to journey to the virtual world and see what they had created. Waldo was that guinea pig.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Isaac give him the thumbs up. He stepped into the Scanners, turned around, and shut his eyes.

The doors closed on him, and the virtualization process started. It felt like wind was moving all around him, but it was just Scanner keeping itself cool. Soon, magnetic forces lifted him into the air. Several moments later, he blacked out.

There was nothing. No feeling, tastes, no smells, nothing to indicate that he was still alive. He briefly wondered if the virtualization had failed and when it split his atoms, he had died.

This thought was dispelled as he became aware of a body again. When he fully regained consciousness, he realized too late that he was falling.

"Oof!" He exclaimed when the impact of landing shook him.

"Waldo? Waldo?! Are you there?" Isaac's voice seemed to come from above. "I'm here," Waldo replied.

"Yeah!" Isaac exclaimed in victory. "We did it! We did it!"

The shock soon faded somewhat, allowing Waldo to take in his surroundings. The landscape was monochromatic, a deep shade of blue. The terrain was blocky, seeming to be random.

By his limited sense of feeling and different way of speaking, seeing, and hearing, there was no denying that he was in the new virtual world.

"You would not imagine the data I'm getting here!" Isaac exclaimed. Waldo could faintly here other members of the Project celebrating in the background.

"Say something else!" Isaac urged.

"What do you want me to say?" Waldo asked.

"Wow..." Isaac replied. "It's amazing what kind of voice readings I'm getting. The possibilities for this are unlimited!"

Waldo sensed that Isaac was beside himself with excitement. It was indeed amazing, but Waldo was more concerned about what purposes this would be used for.

Franz was now regretting the decision he made to stay and work here. He had sworn an oath, stating that he would be hunted down and killed for deserting or telling anyone anything about this. Because of that, Waldo doubted that he would ever be allowed to leave the organization that was Green Phoenix.

As the shock subsided further, Waldo was able to look at himself. He was dressed in solid white, tight fitting clothes. There was no distinction between shirt, pants, or shoes.

"Can you explore some more?" Isaac asked. "We want to get as much data as possible."

Slowly and unsteadily, Waldo took several steps. He quickly became bolder, and was soon running through the hallways.

When one hall ended, he found himself in a large room. He stopped dead and nearly choked at what he saw. Standing dead center of the circular chamber was another man.

His voice failed him as the figure looked up and into his eyes.

Waldo was transfixed as he studied the man before him. He had stark white hair and glowing red eyes. Some type of red and black armor adorned him, and the claw-like boots on his feet gave off an extra creepy image.

"Waldo," Isaac's voice said. "Why'd you stop? Is something wrong?"

Waldo still couldn't find his voice.

The man took a step towards him.

"Who are you?" Waldo asked when he could speak. "What are you doing here?"

There was a long pause as the white-haired man seemed to consider his words.

"YOU KNOW WHO I AM," The man responded at last. His voice sent a chill down Waldo's spine. If evil had a voice, it would sound like this.

"YOU CREATED ME."

The revelation struck Waldo like a blast of electricity- this was the AI that he had created. And a blast of electricity was exactly what he got a second and a half later.

When the blast struck Waldo, he began to spasm as the demon kept up the blast. Isaac was screaming for an explanation, but he would never get one.

Waldo lost consciousness, and his virtual body began to deteriorate. His appendages were the first to go, they simply disappeared. Next his torso and face began to turn a shining white, and his body contorted into a sphere.

Smaller spheres broke off from the main body, indicating that Waldo didn't have much time left.

In that instant, the bubbles disappeared; Isaac had sent the command to bring Waldo back to Earth.

**August 13th, 1980 AD**

**6:33 AM**

**Carthage Facility**

As Waldo opened his eyes, a fuzzy image slowly came into focus. A man – Waldo assumed him to be a doctor – stood over him.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I feel..." Waldo didn't know how he felt. After a moment, he continued, "Physically, I feel fine. I'm not sure of my mental condition."

The doctor grinned slightly. "If you're well enough to form complete sentences, then you'll be alright in a few days. We were afraid we'd lost you!"

Memories began to trickle back. As they did, horror began to creep up on him. What have I done? He asked himself.

Over the next several days, he was questioned heavily about what had happened. He told them everything he knew, but that didn't seem to satisfy the interrogators.

Over that same week, Waldo slipped into a state that bordered on insanity. He was wracked with guilt that he had created such a monster. One part of him knew that the way the AI turned out was due to one of his partners; Waldo was only responsible for the logic engine.

Despite that though, he knew that he had to get out. He couldn't stand it any longer.

**August 19th, 1980 AD**

**12:55 AM**

**Carthage Facility**

When all was quiet, Waldo got out of his bed, and carefully walked into the Quantum Computer room. His plan was bold, but incredibly risky. He worked on the Computer and ejected the memory drives that he needed.

No guards were posted on the inside of the facility during the night time, but Waldo was certain that some were stationed outside. Because of this, Waldo snuck out through the ventilation shafts.

It was a tight squeeze - Franz was not as svelte as he used to be. When he dropped outside into the cool night, he could hardly believe he was out. Several minutes later after he scaled the fence, he was free.

**1980 – 1994 AD**

**France**

The next few weeks were some of the most terror stricken of his life. He was sure that every corner he turned concealed an enemy, but he was wrong every time.

He changed clothes and burned his old ones in case there was a sort of tracking device on them.

Slowly but surely, he began to suspect that he might actually pull off his master plan.

With the data he had stolen, he could reconstruct his own facility somewhere and design a Multi-Agent System to wipe out Project Carthage. It was the only humane thing he could do.

As the months passed, he soon yet a delightful young woman named Anthea Hopper, and they were soon married. By this point, Waldo realized that he needed to change his name. So he took his middle name, Franz (which the terrorists had never acquired) and Anthea's maiden name, to create his alias of "Franz Hopper." In 1981, their first child, Aelita, was born.

More and more as he worked on his new AI, he realized what a corrupt world he lived in. Thus he was prompted to create A World Without Danger for himself and his family. It was relatively simple to build off the existing virtual world created by the SuperComputer.

He named this world, "Lyoko."

Given an infinite amount of time, Franz knew that he could make Lyoko indistinguishable from Earth. But he didn't have that time.

Lyoko's presence on the Internet was drawing the attention of Green Phoenix. As it grew, Carthage's computers picked up more and more data. Eventually, they had enough information and discovered Franz's work and location. Given that information, they sent bounty hunters from another division of the Green Phoenix.

Some time later, the bounty hunters tracked him and kidnapped his two-week pregnant wife, leaving him with a threat. Unbeknownst to Franz, they brought her back to Carthage and virtualized her, keeping her secure on an Internet server separate from Carthage.

After the basis of Lyoko was established, he completed the construction of XANA. He based the coding off of PC-54T4N, but he was in complete control this time. There was no Isaac or Matthieu to pervert the program to suit their evil desires. Franz didn't know if they wanted 54T4N, to be that evil, or it had just happened because of an error in their coding. Either way, it was clear the Green Phoenix liked the way 54T4N turned out.

Soon after, Franz unleashed XANA on Carthage. To be honest, Franz didn't want to know how it went. XANA had reported that Carthage was "utterly destroyed." When XANA used that term, Franz knew that he had probably annihilated the entire facility and everyone inside.

Given the absolute destruction of their main project, Green Phoenix soon disbanded, but because of the lack of communication, the bounty hunters continued on their mission to hunt Franz down.

Finally, on June the 6th, 1994, Franz discovered the property of his SuperComputer that allowed him to reverse time. He wanted to reverse it back through all those years, but the reversion only took him back to the beginning of June 6th. So he used this time to perfect his project.

On the 2546th day of June 6th, Franz initialized the final processes for Lyoko. He planned to complete it from the inside with the help of XANA. However, this alerted the bounty hunters, and they realized that Franz had disregarded their threat. When they assaulted Franz's house that day, he fled with Aelita to Lyoko. He discovered that his Lyoko Avatar remained unchanged from when he was last virtualized. He knew that this was due to the fact that he had directly copied what information he had stolen from Carthage into the SuperComputer.

Here it was that he discovered that XANA had betrayed him. This hurt Franz beyond words. He was so sure that he had programmed XANA to be good. How could he have turned away?

But Franz did not know of the events that had transpired. When XANA destroyed Carthage, 54T4N survived by escaping into the Internet. After this, he discovered XANA, Lyoko, and the SuperComputer.

54T4N disguised himself and began to talk to XANA. Secretly.

Because of his persuasions, XANA began to change. One could blame 54T4N, but XANA had free will. He chose to follow the teachings of 54T4N over the instructions of his creator.

Together, they started the MillEnnium War, and the name of NoviEk was bestowed on 54T4N. This of course, is a story for another time...

**June 6th, 2008 AD**

**7:28 PM**

**The Hermitage**

"I still don't know what caused XANA to turn on me," Franz concluded with a sigh. "You know the rest of the story."

It was a somber moment.

But the fact that the Lyoko Warriors now knew Franz's story did not change NoviEk's effects on XANA. Planet Earth would pay the price many years later.

**Chapter 1**

**Sunday, September 8th, 2057 AD**

**8:56 AM**

**Kadic Academy**

Summer break. To many, this phrase summoned feelings of fun, relaxation, and most importantly, the absence of school. To me, summer break conjured up premonitions of doom.

You see, I'm no ordinary kid. I've spent almost the last year of my life fighting a demonic computer virus called XANA who wants to take over the world in a virtual universe.

It's a pretty unbelievable story, I know, but it's as real as real can be.

As I walked up the sidewalk to Kadic Academy, I revisited some old memories. They weren't good ones. XANA – by means the Scyphozoa – had copied precious data from two of my friends, Sean and Tennent. This data was the essence of Lyoko residing inside our DNA. Because of this, our eyes glow our Lyoko colors whenever we are thinking about or doing something related to Lyoko.

After XANA copied the data from Sean and Tennent, their eyes no longer glow. They still change color, so they're still pretty special, but they don't glow that Alyssa's, Brittany's, and mine.

None of us – not even ANAX, the AI who used to serve XANA but now has sworn his allegiance to Lyoko – have any idea what XANA plans to do with that information. He's locked up in the Core of Lyoko, preventing us from getting the data we need to decode Jeremy's journal and understand how to defeat XANA.

The entire summer was spent in drudgery for me. I had no idea when XANA would become active again, and what he would do. Despite our past victories over him, I was petrified of him. My imagination had run wild, imagining all kinds of horrible ends XANA would achieve with this new information.

To my great astonishment and relief, XANA activity stayed at zero for the duration of the vacation. When we were back on campus I wouldn't have to worry about being too far away from the Factory.

As I reached the school gates, I stopped temporarily to gather up my things. I had quite a bundle. Kadic was a boarding school, so I was overloaded with clothes, books, and gear for my new school year. And this year I started high school, which meant that I changed dorms.

I hefted my packs and began walking into the campus. It had been a long three months.

Headmaster Dunbar greeted my jovially, "Welcome back, Sammy!"

I returned the salutations. He directed me to my new dorm, and I walked off to find it.

I didn't spend much time wandering; I was familiar with the layout. When I located my dormitory, I gratefully dropped my stuff onto the bed. I rubbed my shoulders where the straps of my travel bag had weighed on me.

Soon after, I set to work unpacking. The first order of business was to install the new OS on the computer and transfer my files. I had done a back-up some time ago. Given the amount of data I had on that back-up, I knew it would take a while to do a full restore. So I started putting my clothes away when I was shortly interrupted.

"Hey, buddy!" I heard a familiar voice say. I stood up and turned around to find Sean and Tennent in the doorway, smiling.

"Hey guys!" I said enthusiastically. I couldn't resist giving them hugs in the name of brotherly love.

"You look taller," Sean said to me.

"So do you," I replied. We didn't look like kids anymore. Now we were in 9th grade and 15 years old.

We discussed our summers, but the topic soon turned serious when the computer notified me that the installation was complete.

My eyes flashed bright orange as I went over to check on it. I noticed that both Sean and Tennent's eyes had changed colors, but of course, there was no light in them. A chill passed down my spine as I saw this.

"Ah, I wondered when you would connect, Sammy," a digital voice resonated from the speakers.

"Wow, ANAX," Tennent said. "How did you find the new computer so fast?"

"Oh, it was simple," he replied. "I knew that today was the day you come back to school, so I simply scanned all the computers' webcams in each of the high school dorms until I found an active one with you guys in it. I've already set up the connection between this computer and Lyoko's Interface."

"So you're really on top of things, then?" Sean asked.

"Oh, yes," ANAX said. His tone suggested he was waving a hand, as if dismissing the matter. "Sammy and I have kept good contact over the summer."

We finished our unpacking and headed down to the school yard. We didn't have school until tomorrow, today was the day to get everything settled in and prepare for the next year.

We were pretty much done with all that by 11 in the morning, so we figured we could take a little free time. We were pleased to find Alyssa and Brittany already there, waiting for us.

"Hey, gang," Brittany said with a smile.

"It looks like we made it through the summer with no XANA activity," Alyssa said after she greeted us. "That's good, right?"

"I'm actually pretty worried about that," I admitted. "I don't know what he's been doing for such a long time. He's got to be fixing something really big, and I don't like it."

"Maybe he's having a lot of problems?" She suggested optimistically.

"Yeah," I said. "I suppose."

Given the fact that there was nothing we could do about it, we decided to let the matter go. Sean and I grabbed Brittany and Alyssa's luggage and carried it to their rooms. Tennent headed for the admin office to get our class schedules for us.

About a half-hour later, we had finished unloading all our stuff and were in the hall of the administration office.

We looked at the pieces of paper to figure out how our school days would be.

The first class of the day was Math; Algebra and Geometry. Second was World History, and then Biology. Fourth class was a Computer and Tech class. I knew that this would be an especially easy class for me.

Fifth period was French, and then we had lunch. Directly after was English, and then PhysEd. The last period was either Music or Health. I - like Alyssa and Brittany - had chosen Health class, while Tennent and Sean had chosen Music. I found later that they picked that for an easy good grade.

As we compared schedules, we realized that Brittany was on a very different agenda. It didn't take long to figure out that she had been placed on the alternate order of subjects.

"How can this happen?" Sean demanded. "They can't separate us like this!"

"Well, they did, dude," Tennent pointed out.

Sean went on. "It's bad enough that we're split up in our last period, if XANA attacks then, it'll be harder to get moving. With Brittany off our schedules even more, it will be much harder."

I noted that Sean's argument was quite weak. With ANAX on our side, he could send off a text message to all of us from the SuperComputer as soon as he detected an activated Tower. Since Sean knew this, I didn't point it out to him, since all of knew the real reason he didn't want Brittany to be in a different class.

"Can't we get it changed?" Alyssa suggested.

"Well there's only one way to find out," Sean replied as he marched off to the principal's office.

**Sunday, September 8th, 2057 AD**

**12:32 PM**

**Kadic Academy Cafeteria**

"Any luck?" Tennent asked as we sat down with our food.

"Nah..." Sean shook his head. "Dunbar said it wasn't possible to change the composition of the classes. It doesn't look like there's anything I can do."

"Unless..." Brittany began hesitantly.

"What?" Sean asked.

"Sammy could hack the school system and put me with you guys," She suggested.

"That's true," I said. "It wouldn't be hard. But if I change your class schedule, Dunbar is going to notice that the documents have been changed, and the Teachers have already printed out the list of students in their classes, so I don't think I could do much good."

"What about a Return to the Past?" Sean asked hopefully.

"Sean," I said back. "You know we can't do that. Going back in time makes XANA stronger! Even supposing we did do it, and I could hack the network, nothing says that the change would go unnoticed and be reverted. The whole thing might be a waste."

Even Sean saw the logic in that. That didn't mean he had to like it.

**Sunday, September 8th, 2057 AD**

**1:17 PM**

**Kadic Park**

"Look, Sean," Brittany said. "It's not the end of the world. We still have Gym class and Lunch together. And ANAX will help us out for the Lyoko side of our life."

"Yeah, I know," Sean said in a subdued tone. "But it won't be the same..."

As they walked, they looked around at all the trees and flowers in the woods.

"And I guess we can still hang out after school and talk, right?" Sean asked.

"Of course," She replied.

Up to this point, Sean still had not confided in anyone else about most of his problems. Brittany was the only one he needed.

They walked for several more minutes in silence. There was little else to say.

**Sunday, September 8th, 2057 AD**

**1:02 PM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

I spent the rest of the day examining Jeremy's journal. I had made almost no progress over the summer, decoding bits and pieces of non-essential information.

In the time after XANA went inactive last school year, Alyssa had come to my dorm from time to time to listen to ANAX and I work. I wasn't sure why, but whatever her reason, it seemed to help.

Now, there was nothing wrong with ANAX, but there was something about having another human in the room that made it easier to sort my thoughts out. I'm a verbal thinker, and the more people listening to me "think," the better.

Today was one such day. She sat on the bed flipping through a magazine while she listened to ANAX and I discuss the coding.

"So here's this string of characters that continues to puzzle me," I said highlighting the line of text.

**(Author's Note: Thanks to all the cool fonts installed on my computer, I was able to insert code in the Aurebesh font, which was used for the Computer Code in Code Lyoko. That font isn't visible here on FanFiction dot net, so just know that there's a cool string of code right here if you were reading the PDF or on the Veterans forum)**

"This has to correspond to the Lyoko Data we need. It occurs so many times throughout the code, we can easily conclude that it is the key to cracking the code," ANAX said.

"And you guys have already figured that out, right?" Alyssa asked.

"That's right," I said to her. "But we still can't decipher what it could mean."

"And it's where we've been stuck for the past month," ANAX added.

"We've tried so many different things," I said. "But we're just not getting anywhere. The only thing that will help us is the data from the Core of Lyoko, which is _still_inaccessible."

"Well one day XANA will have to be finished in there and we can get back to work," Alyssa said.

I kept forgetting how good she was at keeping a positive outlook.

**Sunday, September 8th, 2057 AD**

**2:12 PM**

**Tennent and Sean's Dorm**

"There you go, Smudge!" Tennent said as he finished unpacking the last of his pet's things. "You've got a bigger place now, how do like that?"

Smudge purred happily as he stretched luxuriously on the floor.

Tennent scratched the cat behind the ears. "If only my life was as easy as yours," Tennent whispered to the animal. "You've got nothing to worry about... But I plan to keep it that way."

By saying this, Tennent was promising the keep Kadic – and the rest of the world – safe. Not only for Smudge, but for all who lived there.

**Tuesday, September 11th, 2057 AD**

**3:30 PM**

**Kadic Academy Health Classroom**

The bell rang, indicating that school was over for the day. Even though it had only been a few days, it felt like I had been back in school for months. I had begun to adjust to the new dorms, and the different layout of the buildings. Several of my classes – including gym – were in their old locations.

As a high-schooler now, I had an extra building near the high school dorm for those classes. For all the others, I still got to go back to the other part of the campus.

It was strange, definitely not what I was used to, but I was adjusting. But today, the day that I was dreading finally arrived. Just as I was walking out the door of my last class, my phone buzzed, announcing a text message from ANAX.

_Oh, no! _I thought. _Activated Tower! Here we go..._

Less than two minutes passed before the entire gang had assembled in the school yard.

"Ready to go?" Alyssa asked. I could tell that even she was nervous about this.

"Yeah," I replied. "We can't waste any time."

As I started to run off, Sean stopped me. "Wait!" He said.

"What?" Tennent asked from a few feet away.

"Since we have no idea what kind of attack this is, shouldn't a couple of us stay at the school to find out?"

We hesitated for the briefest of moments. "You're right," I replied at last. "We'll need to know whether a Return to the Past is needed or not."

"Sean and I will stay here," Brittany volunteered.

"Ok, let's go!" Tennent said. _Now _we raced off.

**Tuesday, September 11th, 2057 AD**

**3:49 PM**

**Bridge to the Factory**

After chucking my scooter to the side, I scaled the ladder and began running across the bridge. I was really out of shape, but I wasn't as tired as I could have been, thanks to Lyoko's Data strengthening me.

It was a very familiar routine; we had travelled this path many times. In one way, it was good to be back in the fight. On the other hand, I was very scared that we would be pushed into a face plant by XANA.

ANAX began talking as soon as the elevator door opened. "The Tower that XANA has activated is in the Desert Sector. I don't detect any monster activity, and it's clear that XANA has left the Core of Lyoko. If we come out of this fight alive, then we should get the needed data ASAP."

_That's the nice thing about being a computer program, _I thought. _You never lose your composure._

As me and my two friends went down to the Scanners, I realized that that though was not true. XANA certainly seemed to have some sort of emotions, he screamed in defeat when we got the Keys to Lyoko.

_Either way, _I resolved. _ANAX is on top of his game. We just need to make out of this one._

As the Scanner's door closed, I shut my eyes and prepared for virtualization. The almost forgotten feeling was experienced again, and soon I found myself on Lyoko.

I looked down at myself.

"Wow," I said. "Great job ANAX!"

He had given our Lyoko Avatars a touch-up. There were minimal changes; the most apparent was our increased height. Overall, my tiger costume was slightly sleeker, with shiny metal-like shoulder and knee pads. The black stripes across my body seemed slightly longer, and a bit more defined.

Tennent was examining his changes as well. He too, had grown a bit taller, and he looked a bit more muscular. He hadn't lost his svelte frame, but his forearms in particular looked bigger. Dark gray stripes had been added onto his tail.

Standing just to my left, Alyssa inspected her new gear. The short cape on her back had disappeared, and a diamond shaped streak of darker pink had appeared on her midsection.

"Pretty spiffy," Tennent complimented.

"Looks nice," Alyssa agreed. "But for now, we've got a job to do."

I was happy the changes weren't too big it made it easy to keep going like normal. Still, it was nice that ANAX had updated our facial features and height to match the way they looked now.

We quickly reached the red-colored Tower. When we came to a stop, the dust we kicked up with our feet began to settle.

"It's too quiet here," I said. "If XANA was planning something big, it seems like he would want a lot of monsters here like the last time we fought..."

"A wise assumption," A voice suddenly sliced through the synthetic air on Lyoko. "But I don't need anything with this Tower, so I have nothing to guard..."

"What do you want with us, XANA?" Tennent demanded.

"Wait," XANA answered. "Where is Sean? He _must_ be here."

"_Who do you think we are?_" I yelled in outrage. "Why should we agree to anything you demand? You've proven that you want nothing more than to kill us!"

"I digress. All the Lyoko Warriors need to see this. It's far too late to stop it."

No one said anything for a few moments.

"Fine," XANA's voice said. "I'll even deactivate the Tower. I suppose you must need some... CONFIDENCE."

Immediately, the Tower's aura faded to white.

"See? I can keep my word." The disembodied voice said smugly.

"Trust me, this is a show you really don't want to miss..."

**Tuesday, September 11th, 2057 AD**

**3:53 PM**

**Kadic Academy, Outside the Dormitories**

"No attack so far," Sean commented.

"Our friends must be on Lyoko by now," Brittany added.

An uncomfortable silence fell between the two. It was quickly broken by the ringing of Sean's phone.

"It's from Sammy," he said to Brittany before answering.

"Hey," she said.

"Listen," Sammy said from Lyoko. "We're in the Desert Sector. XANA's just deactivated the Tower. It seems he just wanted us on Lyoko so he can brag to us. He's specifically requested your presence."

"And you think we should agree to that?" Sean asked in surprise.

"Well he's already got the data he wanted from you, and the Tower's deactivated, so I think you should get over here. Might as well bring Brittany."

"See you there," Sean said as he hung up.

**Tuesday, September 11th, 2057 AD**

**4:07 PM**

**Lyoko, Desert Sector**

XANA had fallen silent ever since I got off the phone with Sean. It was kind of disturbing, knowing that he was watching us, like some incorporeal menace looming over our heads. The Tower remained deactivated.

Soon, ANAX announced, "Sean and Brittany are in the Factory. I'll transfer them."

In almost no time at all, we witnessed the forming of Sean and Brittany's new forms.

Given the gravity of the situation, we did not discuss the changes, but I noted them all the same.

Brittany had a different pattern on her body suit, there was more dark purple in it than previously, and other than the update to match her age, she was largely unchanged.

Sean looked broader, in terms of muscles and armor. The belt of knives across his midsection had been replaced by some sort of chest plate. His boots looked a little bit taller.

"So what's going on?" Sean asked in an exasperated tone.

"I think we're about to find out," Tennent explained.

"Thanks to Sean," XANA's voice cut in, causing us to jump. He continued, "I was able to achieve the first step in my master plan. It really just wouldn't have been the same were it not for Sean, so I must thank you."

"He's _mocking _us now?" Sean asked in disgust. "This is insane."

A growling noise sounded. We assumed this was XANA.

"You clearly don't understand the magnitude of what you're about to witness. Perhaps I should cut to the chase?"

Before any of us could refuse, all of Lyoko began to shake, as if it was in an earthquake! The noise was deafening. I am unable to describe the sound we were hearing, but it was like what you might expect to hear if you really were in an earthquake.

Later, I found that this was caused by all the new power flowing. Massive changes were underway, and Lyoko's processors were running past the maximum to handle it all.

As quick as it began, the "Lyoko-quake" stopped.

"What just happened?" Brittany asked. No one knew the answer. Not just yet.

"XANA?" Tennent shouted. "Show yourself!"

When there was no response, he muttered, "Coward!"

"Sammy!" ANAX exclaimed suddenly. "Take a look at the HoloMap!"

He sent the command to my holographic interface and the map of Lyoko appeared. "Oh, no!" I said.

"What?" Alyssa asked as she came running over to look. The rest of my friends followed suit.

Normally, the HoloMap showed Sector 5 in the center, with each of the four other Sectors branching from it. The map that I was seeing, however, displayed _five _Sectors coming out of the central Sector 5.

The Forest, Ice, Mountain, and Desert were all still there, but another landmass was there! Sector 5 also appeared to have gotten bigger to accommodate for the additional "spoke."

"What's going on here?" I asked, knowing that I wouldn't get a satisfactory answer.

"Somehow, it looks like XANA's created a new Sector!" ANAX said unnecessarily.

_But how? _I wondered. _And why?_

A giant yellow laser blasted several centimeters away, and I jumped backwards in surprise. Three MegaTanks had just appeared!

Normally, between the five of us, we should have been able to handle the monsters. I'm sure that my friends were just as shocked as I was by XANA's latest move.

In short order, all of us had been devirtualized. I couldn't say that I was happy with that outcome.

As I stepped out of the Scanner gasping, I looked around. At least the Factory was intact.

When my friends joined me in the Lab, we all inspected the giant HoloMap in the center of the room.

After what felt like a long time, Brittany spoke up, "How did he do it?"

A moment passed before ANAX answered, "It had to have had something to do with Sean's Lyoko Data. For some reason, XANA needed that. My only theory as to why he needed that is very uncertain.

"As a Multi-Agent System like myself, XANA is limited to certain things he can do on Lyoko. Anything with Waldo Schaeffer's digital imprint cannot be edited. So XANA isn't really able to just go in and create a new Sector. Somehow, he's used Sean's Lyoko Data to get around that, since his set of the Keys to Lyoko has Waldo's imprint. XANA must have not edited the data, and somehow _applied _it to make another Sector."

"But what does he gain from that?" I asked.

"As far as I can tell - nothing."

"Well we know he must have a purpose, because he said that this was the first step in his master plan," Alyssa informed us.

More silence. We all hated it when XANA got his way.

We realized that we'd have to explore this new Sector soon, and that would present a host of new problems, all completely unexpected.

**Author's Notes: You'll note how I have done away with the page breaks. With my new system, they are no longer needed. Any time you see bold text with date, time, and location, that indicates a scene change. This saves me a LOT of work, and it makes the story a lot more logical. And this is about all I have written for CLG. Any more chapters that you see posted are because I just finished writing them, so the updates will be much, MUCH slower than previously. Again, thank you for taking the time to read this, and please let me know of your thoughts. :) Keep watch for more chapters, coming soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Wednesday, September 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**7:00 AM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

The sounds of techno music jolted me from my sleep. My alarm clock blared the song, letting me know that it was time to get up.

As I slowly came around, I remembered what I had spent the night doing. I stretched in my computer chair, trying to think of what I had discovered.

Oh yes, the new Sector. I couldn't find much information about it. Unlike the other Sectors, the HoloMap had nothing recorded but its existence. Apparently the Map wasn't coded to detect the details of any new Sectors.

ANAX and I had determined that this Sector was unique to Sean's DNA. XANA hadn't done anything to design landscape, structure, or the theme of the Sector. The Lyoko Data in Sean's DNA had taken care of that. It was amazing what that Data could do!

Last night, ANAX and I had reached the conclusion that there was only one way to find out more about the new Sector: Exploration.

Before I had gone to sleep, I had been searching for any way of learning anything about the new Sector. I had found none, and fallen asleep in front of the screen.

"Good morning," ANAX greeted me, chasing the last bits of sleep out of my eyes. "I wonder," he said. "Why you seem to sleep in that chair an awful lot. You have a bed just over there."

"Thanks for the reminder," I said drily. "That aside, we _are _going to explore the new Sector today, right?"

"As long as your schedule permits it," he replied. "It is imperative that we learn all we can about this. Whatever we can find may aid us in determining why XANA has created it."

With that confirmed, I headed out of my room to prepare for the day.

**Wednesday, September 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**7:00 AM**

**Brittany and Alyssa's Dorm**

Brittany turned the alarm off before it sounded – she was already awake. Alyssa was too. Both girls looked very tired.

"I guess neither of us slept that well, huh?" Brittany said with a hint of a smile at Alyssa's tousled hair.

"Nope," was her reply. "Too busy wondering about the new Sector."

"How much you wanna bet that Sammy stayed up all night last night on his computer?"

"Too much," Alyssa said with a smile. "If he did, we're really going to have to make sure he gets some sleep, huh?"

"It seems to be our job these days!" Brittany said as they both laughed.

After making their beds, taking a shower and getting dressed, they headed off to the cafeteria for breakfast, where they met Sean, Tennent, and Sammy.

"Hey, girls," Sean greeted them. "Any sleep?" He asked them. They shook their heads.

"Same here," Sean went on. "None of us slept that well."

Brittany walked through the line to get her food. When she reached the middle, she was faced with the decision of French toast or pancakes. She grabbed the spatula and scooped three pancakes onto her plate. She grabbed some butter and orange juice as well.

"How late did you stay up till last night, Sammy?" Alyssa asked when they sat down.

"Too late," was his reply. "I don't know what time it was."

"Well did you find anything useful about the new Sector?" Brittany asked him.

"Nope, everything is new, and the SuperComputer doesn't have a readout for it. Either XANA encrypted it – which I doubt – or the SuperComputer just doesn't have any coding as to how it should analyze a new Sector. The only way to find out more about it is to explore it."

"And we're going to do that today, right?" Tennent asked as he munched on French toast.

"That's the plan."

**Wednesday, September 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:00 PM**

**English Classroom**

We all filed into the classroom and set our books on the desks. It was time for English, still two more classes left to go.

Mrs. Thompson came into the room and rapped her desk for our attention. We quickly settled down.

"I hope you all are ready for your mid-week quiz," she began with no preamble. "Because we're starting now."

Tyce raised his hand.

"Yes, Bowers," she answered with a disinterested tone, looking over the rims of her glasses.

"Do you mean right now, as in right this second?"

"That's enough stalling." She began handing out papers. His ploy seemed to have failed.

When I received my quiz, I got busy. I was finished shortly, and the rest of the class had finished in about 20 minutes.

We spend the rest of the class period discussing some of the points we had trouble with earlier in the week. I wasn't particularly worried about the results of the quiz, but I wasn't 100% sure about every answer I put down. In any case, I sure wasn't worried about one little grade in light of what we were going to do later on.

**Wednesday, September 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:36 PM**

**The Gymnasium**

"Ok, let's move it!" Jim called. "You can't be tired yet, we've just started!"

We'd just finished warming up. Well, some of us had.

It was a nice day, and we were outside. The weather was the way I like it best, not too cold, but not really that warm. I was given no time to enjoy this though, because we were just about to start jogging around the track.

All of the 9th graders were together for gym class, regardless of class schedule, so we had Brittany with us now.

We all lined up loosely, and started as soon as Jim gave the signal. Over the summer, I had lost what little endurance I had built up, but I was determined to get back in good condition. As long as it didn't get in the way of programming, at least.

The rest of Gym class proceeded without notable incident. The same applied to Health class.

When the final bell rang, we all knew what to do.

**Wednesday, September 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**3:17 PM**

**The Lab**

"I know I've already asked this," I said from the computer chair. "But is everyone ready to explore the new Sector?"

Everyone nodded – except for Tennent, who gave a shout and a fist pump – confirming their readiness.

"I'm not sure if we should send three of you all at once," ANAX said. "After all, this Sector has different coding, and we don't know what will happen if we try a direct virtualization there, and if it works, we don't know what's on the other side. Would it not be better to just send one Lyoko Warrior?"

"Uh... I guess so," I replied. "What could go wrong? Lyoko's accepted the new Sector, so it must be okay."

"One would hope so," ANAX told us. "But we can't be sure."

"So..." Sean began. "I guess that means we need a guinea pig?"

"Exactly!" Tennent said with a grin. "And since you mentioned it, we gladly accept your volunteer to be it!"

"Hey, woah, woah, I didn't say _I _would be the guinea pig!"

"Too late..." Alyssa said with a half-smile.

"Alright, alright..." he said. Less than a minute later, he was standing in front of the Scanner.

"Sammy, are you _sure _this is safe?"

"Um, I'm _pretty _sure," I said weakly.

"Thanks."

A moment passed. "You guys know where to find my will?" Sean joked as he stepped into the Scanner. The joke was wasted on us, no one found it funny.

"Transfer: Sean," I said as I started the process and closed the Scanner doors.

"Scanner." My fingers trembled slightly as I pressed the keys.

"Ok, Virtualization," I announced when I hit the enter button.

We held our collective breath as we waited for something to appear on the screen.

Too many seconds passed, something was wrong. "Hello?" I said into the microphone. "Sean? You there?"

I pressed some keys that were supposed to bring up a dialog menu to the humans on Lyoko.

"Sean! Answer me, what's going on!"

"I'm not picking up his digital signature anywhere," ANAX informed us worriedly. "Not in the 6th Sector, or anywhere else!"

"What are you saying?" Brittany demanded.

"I don't know! Sean's disappeared!"

"How can that be?"

For the next hour, ANAX and I searched every Sector for Sean's DNA. We found nothing.

There was nothing else we could do. In defeat, we trudged across the bridge towards home.

"I have no idea what happened," I said quietly. "The SuperComputer didn't show any errors!

"ANAX will continue to search Lyoko for as long as it takes. And I'll do research on my room computer. He has to be _somewhere._"

"Do that," Brittany said with her back facing me.

She turned around, and the light from the late sun glistened across the tears forming in her glowing eyes. "But what if Sean's gone for good? What if we can't bring him back?"

These two questions were two of thousands of "what-ifs" I had asked myself over the past hour. And I didn't have an answer for either of them.

"You messed up big, Sammy!" She exclaimed. "You should have researched it more beforehand!"

I looked to Tennent and Alyssa, but didn't find the support I was looking for. Brittany was right.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:32 AM**

**Sector 6**

Sean dropped down from the sky and landed skillfully. He looked at his surroundings, surprised. The platform he stood on was very large, with several paths leading out from it. It was a very dark brown color, and otherwise featureless. Several pseudo trees devoid of leaves mourned on the sides of the platform.

There was very little light here, the darkness suggested a time of just past dusk, though Sean knew that time did not affect things like this on Lyoko. Because of this shadowing, Sean could not see very far ahead. Overall, it was a pretty gloomy place.

"Everything's alright, Sammy," Sean yelled out. "I'm in the Sector."

Several seconds passed, and all remained totally silent. "Sammy?" He called. It was then that he realized that no sound came out of his mouth when he talked. _Is something wrong? _He wondered. _Or does sound not work in this Sector?_

As he looked down at his digital body, he saw it flicker statically. _Oh yeah, _Sean decided. _Something's very wrong!_

"Sammy!" He silently yelled. Again, there was no effect, or answer.

As his body began to flicker more rapidly, Sean got more worried. Then he looked up and he became terrified. _Can it get any worse? _He wondered as a new threat closed in.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:28 AM**

**Brittany and Alyssa's Dorm**

Alyssa knew Brittany was upset. _Really _upset. At times like this, Alyssa would be the one to try and cheer her up, but after growing up with her, she knew that Brittany didn't want to hear any of that.

So the two of them lay awake in their beds, far past the time they should have gone asleep. More than a few silent tears were shed, but no words were needed.

Alyssa turned over in her bed to try and get comfortable. It was impossible. She figured if she was going to be awake, she'd at least spend that time well.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:31 AM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

I had searched everywhere. There was no trace of Sean anywhere. I had found the record that indicated he had been successfully virtualized, but after that, nothing.

Logically, there should have been a record of something else after that; the impact between Sean's feet and Lyoko's ground, for example. But that was not the case, and I wasn't finding an explanation.

At precisely 12:32:47 AM, ANAX found something.

"Sammy," he announced. "I've just detected a new signal in the 6th Sector."

"What's its identification?" I demanded, eager to learn more.

"It's unreadable. The impulse is distorted, suggesting an anomaly in its function. It seems to be moving about, but I can't decipher much more than that."

"Try to lock on to it," I ordered. "If we can't read the signal's ID, then we need to know everything about its actions."

ANAX didn't reply, but I knew he was working.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:34 AM**

**Dormitory Hallway, 9****th**** Grade Boys**

Alyssa tip-toed through the hall, being careful not to make any noise. Still learning the layout of the new building, she took a wrong turn earlier, but now she had found the right hallway.

She stood outside of Sammy's door and slowly reached for the handle, hoping that the door was unlocked. She didn't want to risk the noise of knocking.

To her relief, it was. She quietly closed the door behind her.

"Hey," She whispered. Sammy didn't respond. She squinted, trying to see in the dim light. The room was only illuminated by the screen of his computer.

Alyssa saw that Sammy was wearing headphones, which explained why he hadn't heard her. She supposed that Sammy was using them to hear ANAX talk without waking the whole floor.

She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped out of his chair, but thankfully he didn't scream.

"It's just me!" Alyssa whisper-shouted. Because of their glow, she could see that his eyes were very wide. Recognition clicked in them and they returned to normal size.

He got up from the ground and sat down in his chair. He straightened his glasses before whispering, "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep. I wanted to know if there's any news about Sean."

He turned around and started typing on the keyboard. As he did so, he explained, "Possibly... ANAX has picked up a signal that seems to behaving like Sean would if he was in a new Sector. He can't get an identification so-"

He quickly stopped and began typing furiously. _ANAX must have said something to him, _Alyssa thought. She leaned over close to Sammy's ear so she could hear what he was saying.

"...attacking him. He's on the move, but XANA's catching up. The signal's failing; it looks like it might dissipate any moment!"

"Isolate that mass!" Sammy commanded. "Lock it down!"

"But what if that deteriorates the object's coding? If it's Sean then we might not be able to rematerialize him."

"If we don't do anything then he's going to disappear forever and we'll never rematerialize him _for sure. _So we have to take the risk... Do it!"

Alyssa held her breath. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together. Sean seemed to be on Lyoko and XANA's monsters were chasing him. Something had gone wrong in the transfer, and he was fading fast.

If the isolation failed, or it damaged Sean's digital coding, then they would likely never see him again.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:35 AM**

**Sector 6**

Sean was running from the new monsters XANA had chasing him. He looked over his shoulder, but he couldn't get a good look at them, there wasn't enough light in this Sector.

As his digital body began to fade faster and faster, he suddenly froze and fell flat on his face. He couldn't move anymore! His vision had gone white and fuzzy, he couldn't see much at all.

Under XANA's control, Hannah slowly walked up to Sean's prone form. She looked at it with disgust. "What do we do now?" She asked irritably.

"Proceed as secondarily planned. We'll have to settle this time."

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:37 AM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

"Digital entity successfully isolated." Alyssa barely heard ANAX from Sammy's headphones.

"Is that good?" She asked quietly. "Is Sean okay?"

"He seems stable," Sammy told her. "He's frozen now, but he's stopped degenerating. In order to retrieve him, we'll have to go to Lyoko to undo the isolation and make sure he's alright."

"So are we going to do that now?" Alyssa asked. "'Cause if we wait until morning, we'll either have to skip school or sit through it, and either of those isn't very good."

"That's right," Sammy told her. "The isolation may not last long, and XANA may find a way to break it soon. I don't know what else XANA could want with Sean, but I think we're going to need to act now."

"Ok, Brittany's probably still awake. I'll go get her, and we can meet up at the Factory."

"Sounds good," he replied. "But be careful. We don't want to wake anyone up, especially not Jim."

She nodded, and quietly left the room.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:40 AM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

Ever since we had graduated into the 9th Grade, Jim had taken to sleeping on our floor every other night. Previously, he hadn't done this, most 9th graders were mature enough to not need a strict overseer like Jim, and would behave themselves. Of course, two other teachers slept in our dorm for safety reasons. The rest had apartments or houses they went home to every night.

I wasn't 100% sure as to why Jim had decided to start doing this now, after all, those 8th graders (the previous 7th graders) were a feisty bunch that needed watching. My theory was that Kadic had not seen a joker like Tyce in a long time. Jim probably wanted to keep an eye on him, and me and my friends' repeated disappearances probably contributed to his decision.

I allowed several minutes to pass after Alyssa left the room before I went to get Tennent. When I felt that enough time had elapsed, I proceeded out of my room and sneaked over to Tennent's.

I opened the door and a quiet, "Meow!" greeted me. Like Tennent, Smudge was still awake. The cat sat on his owner's stomach as Tennent stroked him.

"News?" He asked expectantly.

"Yeah," I told him. As quickly and as quietly as I could, I described what had happened.

"What do you think caused the error in the virtualization?" Tennent asked me when I had finished.

"I don't really know," I said, "but I think it may have something to do with the fact that we don't have the parameters correctly configured for virtualization there. It must just be because it's a new Sector, and it hasn't blended seamlessly with the rest of Lyoko, we'll have to find the code that allows for direct materialization there. I'm sure ANAX can gather this data when we explore the place."

"Tonight?"

"Of course. Let's go, but we'll have to be quite. Jim's sleeping with us tonight."

Tennent grimaced, but he didn't delay. He gently shoved Smudge off of him and the two of us tip-toed out of the room.

We were almost to the end of the hallway when I tripped on what I supposed to be an electrical cord. My forehead slammed into the double doors making a racket.

"Rats!" Tennent said under his breath. He hauled me to my feet and began sprinting down the stairs, without regard of noise now.

"Hey, who's there?" We heard Jim's voice demand. By now I could stumble down the steps on my own. We bolted out the door as we heard heavy footsteps behind us.

"Go, go, go!" Tennent muttered. We hoped that the shadows would conceal our identities.

When we reached the tree line, we slowed our pace. We weren't being followed any more.

As the minutes ticked by, I slowly began to think more clearly – the panic was beginning to dissipate.

"Oh no!" I exclaimed in realization.

"What?" Tennent breathlessly asked.

"Even if Jim didn't see us, we'll be caught for sure. All he has to do is check our rooms and see that we're the only ones missing."

A beat passed before Tennent replied, "Blast it! I bet this is gonna be four hours of detention."

"You're probably right," I woefully agreed.

It was a little more difficult to navigate the forest in the dark. I didn't realize that we'd be seeing a lot more shadows before the night was over.

We continued to run in silence until we reached our destination.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:03 AM**

**The Factory, Main Floor**

Tennent and I swung from the ropes and touched down in front of the elevator. The Factory was awfully cold at night; I shivered in the elevator all the way down.

When the door opened at last, we found that Brittany and Alyssa had beaten us here.

"So how come Sean had such a delayed virtualization?" Brittany asked after waving at us.

"We don't have the code for this Sector's parameters," I explained. "Because of that, it took the SuperComputer an exceptionally long amount of time to work Sean's coding into the new Sector, and even when it did, it appears it wasn't a full virtualization."

"Oh, he's fully on Lyoko!" I explained when Brittany's mouth dropped open. _It would be bad if Sean was half on Earth and half on Lyoko, _I thought.

"But his signal was skewed, and he didn't seem to be able to speak. It seems like he would have tried to say something when he got there, but ANAX didn't hear anything at all."

"So what are we going to do?" Brittany asked.

"ANAX has isolated Sean's code. We're going to have to go into the new Sector to find him so that we can unscramble him. After we do, ANAX and I will have to figure out how to do direct virtualization to the 6th Sector."

"And we've still got Jeremy's diary to think about," Alyssa reminded me. "Which is more important? What if there's info in there that could help us?"

"Right," I said with a shake of my head. "I had forgotten that, XANA's not in the Core anymore. So our plan of action is to a) retrieve Sean, and then b) decode Jeremy's journal. After which we can move onto c) work out the coding for the Sector."

"Sounds good to me!" Tennent said. "So let's go and rescue Sean!"

The three of them went down to the Scanners and I virtualized them. Then I set up a delayed virtualization for myself and joined them in the Mountain Sector.

I surveyed my surroundings quickly to insure that no monsters were about.

"I think you might have another thing to add to that list of yours, Sammy," Alyssa said to me.

"What's that?"

"I assume that we're getting to the new Sector through Sector 5, right?"

I nodded.

"So we have to traverse this Sector, Sector 5, and then fight our way through the new one as well."

"That's right," I said, not understanding where she was going.

"So wouldn't we save ourselves a lot of time if we could virtualize directly to Sector 5?"

"Yeah, I guess we would," I replied. _That _sure didn't take much thought.

"But we'd save even more time by getting directly to Sector 6," Brittany proposed.

"Well if Jeremy ever figured out how to do it the information should be in his journal, so we can figure it out that way, I bet," I said thoughtfully.

"Well we can worry about this later," ANAX cut in. "We have to save Sean quickly. Soon, we can worry about these other things."

"Look!" Tennent shouted as he pointed. Three Bloks approached from the distance.

"C'mon, XANA," he complained. "That's not even one for each of us!"

"Shut it!" Brittany ordered. "Let's just do this; we don't know how much time Sean has."

Tennent looked taken aback for a moment before scampering off to engage the Bloks.

As they began to shoot at us, I unsheathed my laser claws to defend against the bolts. I dodged most of the shots that came my way, but most I simply dodged. Given that I was the only member of the group now that was primarily melee, I didn't take an enemy down.

Tennent was the first to score a kill, after which Alyssa took down her foe. Brittany took a hit in the chest before disposing of the Blok she had faced.

"Let's go," I said. "Brittany, you're at 85 Life Points. The edge of the Sector isn't too far away; I hope we can make it without any more damage."

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:28 AM**

**Sector 5, Arena**

The transport orb touched down and let us out. I didn't know where the rest of XANA's forces where hiding, but I guessed that he wanted to wait to hit us hard where ANAX couldn't offer auxiliary defense, which would be Sector 5 and 6.

As soon as the wall opened, the four of us wordlessly set off into the Core Room.

"You've got eight Creepers waiting for you," ANAX warned. "40 Life Points per impact: be very careful!"

"Thanks for the warning!" I said dodging the first bolt. I spun around and leaped in the direction of the shot and found a Creeper. A slash of my arm later, it was gone.

Now that I was on one of the monsters' perches, I was an easy target. A laser hit me in the back and I tumbled off the edge and hit the ground hard.

"That's 50 Life Points down already, Sammy!" ANAX announced. "You took 10 extra from the fall damage."

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:30 AM**

**Sector 5, Core Zone**

Brittany threw a fan at the Creeper who had shot Sammy down. She had aimed correctly, and the monster fell with a shower of sparks, never to live again.

She moved quickly to deflect the lasers fired at her from the right. When a Creeper came up from the left, she did a back handspring to bring herself out of a difficult situation.

She landed from the handspring and immediately launched a fan at the closest Creeper, destroying it. She turned and saw that Tennent had taken out the monster that had been shooting at her a few seconds ago.

The remaining Creepers fell with little difficulty, and the key was hit before all the Creepers were defeated. ANAX announced the Life Point totals at Brittany: 85, Alyssa: 60, Tennent: 20, and Sammy: 50. The conditions weren't ideal to be braving a new territory, but it was going to have to be good enough.

They took the elevator to the Celestial Dome and Sammy materialized their vehicles from his LI. They whizzed off and heard the sounds of approaching Flying Mantas.

"Ignore them," ANAX instructed. "The new Sector's entrance is really close, I don't think they can slow you down."

As Brittany flew around the giant sphere that was Sector 5, she noticed that it seemed significantly bigger than the last time she was here.

From his OverBlaze, Sammy pointed to a data stream between the Forest and Mountain Sector's streams. This must be where the new Sector had appeared.

Somehow, Sector 5 had enlarged itself to compensate for the new Sector, maintaining a certain distance between the data streams of each of the Sectors. Brittany briefly wondered if this had something to do with why XANA had created the Sector, but she didn't have time to wonder long, ANAX closed the tunnel and it was time to dive in.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:38 AM**

**Sector 6**

Flying through the data stream put us into the new Sector's Way Tower. We quickly exited on our vehicles, and I was surprised by the gloom we now faced.

Unlike the other Sectors, which were well lit, this Sector only had the amount of light you would expect if the sun had just set. The ground beneath us was a dark brown color.

"Pretty dismal place here!" Tennent commented as he surfed on his OverBoard.

"Yeah," Alyssa agreed. "Why do you think it's so dark and spooky?"

"I don't know," I answered her. "ANAX and I don't really know how much control XANA had over the design of this Sector if he used Sean's Lyoko Data."

"What exactly does that mean?" Brittany asked.

"I'm not 100% sure on that, so I'll save any interpretation for later when I have more evidence, otherwise I'd just be confusing everyone, myself included."

"Right, well... Where's Sean?"

"The path ahead ends in about 60 feet," ANAX told us. "Take the left branch and follow that out. You're headed for the center of the Sector, where I'm detecting the digital activity."

We followed these instructions and soon noticed something strange.

"What's with all that light up ahead?" Alyssa asked as she pointed directly in front of us.

"That's where the center of the Sector is, right?" Tennent added.

"Yeah..." I told him. Ahead of us, we saw a bright sphere of light. The gloom clung unnaturally like a cloak around the light. It was a strange sight, seeing the line between light and dark so sharply defined.

"I think we should find Sean in there, or at least, his paralyzed form," I said.

Two seconds passed and ANAX suddenly called, "Watch out!"

"Raagh!" We heard from behind us. A dark form crashed into Brittany's vehicle and was hanging on tight. "Aagh!" Brittany cried in fright. "I'm falling!"

The monster's weight was pulling her down! Tennent swung low and slammed his Board into the monster and sent it flying. But Tennent went with him, and the OverBoard crashed into the ground and was destroyed.

Alyssa and I swung around and jumped off our vehicles to engage the three monsters.

"What _are _those things?" She asked in disgust.

They _were _pretty creepy monsters. They were similar in build to the Lixards, but much bigger. While the Lixards were barely a foot wide at their shoulders, these monsters were at least four feet wide in the same spot. These monsters were a jet black color, and two streaks of barely lighter gray could be seen on the top of their round heads. No XANA's eye was present there.

The monsters had four legs with fearsome and grotesque claws on the end of each one. Their tail was not as long as the Lixards, and I was grateful that they didn't spark with electricity. However, it appeared that their weak point was on the tip of the tail.

The closest monster gave a cry that sounded half-way between a screech and a roar. When it opened its "mouth" I saw that its teeth were not as long as the Lixards, but they were at least as sharp. And I hadn't even seen the special ability these monsters had.

I noticed a red glow in one's mouth and realized too late what was about to happen. It fired a laser and hit me square in the chest. I collapsed backwards and tried not to get hit again. I looked down to see my Life Points and was surprised to find that I only had 20 left! These monsters took 30 LP in just one laser.

"Be careful, everyone, these lasers are 30 Life Points per impact," ANAX reiterated.

No one wasted time responding, we were fighting for our lives! The monsters kept a surprisingly high rate of fire, forcing us to dodge constantly. What's more, they never stopped waving their tails around, so it was almost impossible to get a fix on their eye of XANA.

I quickly became frustrated with this. When I had had enough, I armed and released a rocket at the monster closest to me. It exploded on impact and the monster quickly followed.

The shockwave stunned one of the dark creatures and Alyssa took advantage of its now still tail and destroyed it.

There was only one left now. It behaved like a cornered animal might; sibilant noises were coming from its throat. As we closed in on it, the hissing grew louder, and I began to notice a darkish purple liquid dripping from the monster's mouth.

"Watch ou-!" I began to yell. I was interrupted by the wet sound of the beast launching its saliva.

The dark digital fluid hit Alyssa in the arm and it quickly spread over more of her body. "Aagh!" She exclaimed in fear as she swatted at the substance. Smoke was rising from her Lyoko Avatar where it was in contact with the liquid.

Shock froze us all in our places. We didn't know what to do!

Several seconds later, Alyssa devirtualized. Later research proved that these monsters secreted dark matter, and could use it as a weapon. If it ever touched a part of our bodies, we began losing Life Points very rapidly, and it usually resulted in devirtualization.

Brittany was the first to recover from the shock, and she destroyed the monster, sparing us further damage.

"We need to keep moving," ANAX urged. "I'm seeing some things I don't like near Sean."

We turned around and found that all of our vehicles but the OverBoard were gone.

"Oh, that's just great!" Tennent exclaimed. "Thanks a lot, XANA."

"They were destroyed in the fight," ANAX apologized. "I should have alerted you earlier, but I didn't want to distract you."

It hardly mattered though, in just a few minutes, we had walked right up to the bubble of light. Hesitantly, we stepped inside, and found that it was not nearly as bright on the inside, but the ground had turned a glowing white color, and plenty of soft light was all around.

"What _is _this place...?" Brittany breathed.

It certainly was mystifying. We were not given much time to admire the ethereal beauty though, for he quickly noticed something none of us would forget for a long time.

"Sean!" Brittany suddenly exclaimed.

There he was, suspended a few inches of the air in a vertical position. He was not moving, and his whole body was colored only in varying shades of white, making it difficult to see him. Despite this, there was no mistaking who he was.

"What's wrong with him?" Brittany demanded. "Can you fix him?"

"Now that we're here in person, yes," I replied. "I'll just need to press his hand against this screen," I gestured to a floating holographic board that orbited my wrist slowly.

Tennent was studying Sean's face. "It's gonna be okay, buddy," he said quietly. "We're gonna get you out of this."

"Not so fast," A familiar voice interrupted us from behind.

"Hannah!" I gasped, turning around.

"Do you like the new Sector?" She asked, her voice silky smooth. "XANA's got big plans for it." She gave a wicked grin as she stroked a grotesque creature on her shoulder.

The monster was very bat-like, but it had no discernable features. No face, no fangs, no eyes, nothing. I couldn't even see where the XANA eye was, if there was one at all.

While one of these monsters sat on her shoulder, several more flew above. They were quite easy to discern against the soft white glow of our surroundings.

For an instant more, the two of us stared into each other's eyes. The silence was shattered as one of the bats screeched and dove toward me.

But I was ready for it; as soon as it came in range, I slashed it open with my claws. It fell away and soon exploded.

A second later Hannah jumped toward me, whirling her energy staff. I dodged the first swing and caught the second between my claws. I gave an enormous heave and was surprised to see that the staff came flying out of her hand.

The surprise cost me the half-second it took for her to declare, "SuperSpark!" and disappear.

I looked around and saw that no other monsters remained; my friends had taken care of them.

"Did you take care of Hannah?" Tennent asked me.

"No," I replied, "she disappeared. I'm not sure why..."

"It doesn't matter," Brittany decided. "Let's just save Sean."

Overall, it was a fairly short process. Brittany held Sean's hand against the data screen, and the analysis ran. Once Sean's DNA was recognized, it retrieved that data from the SuperComputer and fixed the errors that had occurred. When that was done, color returned to Sean's body, and he devirtualized.

"Mission clear?" Tennent asked.

"Mission clear," ANAX confirmed. "Return to base." A moment later, he devirtualized us and we woke up in the Scanner Room.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:57 AM**

**Scanner Room**

As I staggered out of the Scanner, I reflected that my last trip to Lyoko had seemed much longer than usual. I supposed that it was due to the fact that I saw three different Sectors in one trip, which was very uncommon.

When the fuzziness faded, I saw Sean lying on the floor as if he had fallen out of one of the Scanners. I jumped over to his side quickly as the rest of my friends gathered around him.

"Sean?" Tennent asked hesitantly. "Are you there? Say something!"

"Something..." Sean muttered.

We laughed quietly. "He must be feeling alright," Brittany said.

In short order, he was back to normal, and able to walk about. We took the elevator to the Lab so we could discuss our adventure.

"So what happened out there?" I asked him.

"Well when I got to the new Sector, my body was really fuzzy, and it was flickering a lot. I tried to call out to you, but I couldn't hear my own voice. Eventually, XANA's creepy new monsters attacked me so I started running. I don't remember anything after that, except for waking up in the Scanner Room."

We filled him in on what he had missed.

While we talked, ANAX was busy working. We didn't realize this though.

When we finished telling the tale, we had the issue of names to cover.

"So what are we going to call this new Sector?" Alyssa finally asked.

Tennent was just waiting for this; I could tell by the speed with which he answered. "How about the Dark Sector?" He proposed. "Because it's so dark there."

We considered the name for a few moments before Brittany protested, "That doesn't make any sense because of the bright light in the center of the Sector."

"But that's a pretty small section of the Sector," Sean pointed out. "Most of it is covered in shadows."

No further objections were raised. "Are we in agreement?" I asked. No one said "no," so I took that as a "yes."

"So we also have two new monsters," Brittany said.

"And I've got the perfect idea for the big ones!" Sean said.

"What?" I asked him.

"Darklings!"

"Darklings?" I parroted back in confusing.

He and Tennent nodded their heads enthusiastically.

"Wait a second," Alyssa cut in. "Isn't that the name of those zombies from that movie you guys watched over the summer?"

"Uh-huh!" Tennent said. "Problem?"

She put her hand up to her mouth for a moment before answering, "Nah, I guess it does suit them. They're pretty freaky..."

"Only one last monster, then," Brittany said.

This one took a while longer to decide.

"Bats?" I proposed.

"Lame," Tennent rejected.

"Vampires," Sean suggested.

"Inaccurate," Brittany disagreed.

"Darkores?" Tennent said hesitantly.

"Where on earth did you get that name from?" I asked in surprise.

He shrugged.

"How about Shadows?" Alyssa asked. "From what I can tell, they seem just like a bat's shadow."

"And how about we spell it with a 'Z!'" Tennent added to that.

"Why?" Alyssa asked, clearly thinking that his suggestion was weird.

"Because that would sound _so _cool! Think about it... Zhadows!"

"Yeah, that's right," Brittany said, rolling her eyes. "Give the _bad _guys the cool names..."

The name fit better than any other, so we went with it.

A few moments of silence passed, and this must have been the chance ANAX was waiting for.

"Are we all finished?" He asked.

"I suppose so," I told him.

"Well I've found something interesting. The code for this new Sector corresponds directly to Sean's DNA. XANA didn't control what it looks like; it looks the way it does because of what's inside Sean."

_Wow... _I thought. It was sobering. This is what Lyoko looked like from inside of Sean's DNA.

"So that would explain all the darkness then," Tennent said. "Because Sean someone who is easy to get to know. Not too many people see him as very friendly, so he has the stereotype of being dark."

"But it would also explain why there's a core of light in the center," Brittany said. "Because in the center of Sean... what you don't see until you get to know him... there's all this _light, _despite the seeming darkness all around."

**Author's Notes: This was quite a pivotal chapter! Very important! I hope you all like it. Anyway, if you want to see the pictures of the new monsters, message me, or visit one of the website I provided at the start of this book. Please drop me a review and tell me what you think. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**7:35 AM**

**Dormitory Hall**

"Woah!" Tennent exclaimed, looking up from the piece of paper in his hands. "Too cool!"

I leaned my head out of the bathroom to see what was going on. "Whath's happenen?" I asked through a mouthful of toothpaste.

Tennent shoved the paper in my face. "The annual Dart War!" he explained. "First practice is tonight!"

"Oh, no," I said. I tilted my head back to stop the foam from spilling onto the floor. Quickly, I turned back to the sink and spit out the toothpaste and rinsed off my brush.

"Did you forget?" I quietly asked him.

"About what?" Sean asked from behind me. "We've been looking forward to this for a long time now."

Every year, the boys hosted a dart gun war in the Middle School dorm. Last year's had been held just a bit before our discovery of the SuperComputer. This year's was a little early, but it was still at close to the same time.

The Dart War lasted one week and two days, if you didn't count weekends, which the boys didn't, since not all of them were on the campus during the weekend. Notices were posted on Thursday and practices took place on that night, as well as Friday. After those, the next Monday started the eliminations. No one really rushed this event; it took all week to get to a single champion.

Obviously, this event was big enough to cause Sean and Tennent to forget about something very, _very _important.

"We were supposed to decode Jeremy's journal tonight, remember?" I asked.

"Oh, no!" Tennent whisper-shouted, smacking himself in the face. "You're right, I totally forgot!"

Sean sighed. "Ok, look, it's just the first practice we'll miss, right?"

"Unless XANA throws a monkey wrench into the works," I muttered.

Sean continued as if I hadn't said anything. "So we can be there for the last practice, and I'm sure our Lyoko skills will give us a bit of an advantage, so we won't need as much sharpening up as everyone else will."

"Oh, alright," Tennent conceded. "But only because decoding this thing is long overdue."

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**8:54 AM**

**Math Classroom**

Mr. Songer paced back and forth at the front of the room, lecturing us on the principals of Algebra 1. I really wasn't learning anything new, so my mind began to wander, drifting back to our discovery earlier today.

_The Dark Sector is what Lyoko is like inside of Sean's DNA! _I thought in amazement. Who could have known that the data inside us could communicate so much? And it was so crazy how the Light Core represented the good that was in Sean that no one ever sees much of; how could this be contained in Lyoko coding?

I shook my head. This was just one of the many facets of Lyoko Data, and it was one reason why it was nearly impossible to decode Jeremy's journal without a direct sample of it.

I had considered using the Data in us over the summer, but ANAX and I both agreed that it would never work. That data was unique to our DNA, and Jeremy could have never set eyes on it. The code sequences found there _might _have assisted us in the decoding process, but it may have only served to confuse us further.

It was too late now, and since XANA was out of the Core of Lyoko, we could decode it any time we wished. I had planned to do this today, in fact, after giving our bodies some time to recover from their trip to Lyoko.

Suddenly, my attention was snapped back to the front of the classroom as Mr. Songer said my name.

"Well?" He asked me, clearly expecting the correct answer. He probably never even considered the fact that I could be daydreaming.

Quickly, I scanned the information on the digital board on the far wall. There was only one question that didn't have an answer with it, so I solved it in my head and give him the answer.

"X equals four-y divided by two, sir."

"Very good, Belpois, thank you for solving the equation for us, but I want to know what rule of Algebra you would use to solve it."

"The additive property, sir."

"Exactly," he replied with a satisfied smile. "If only the rest of the class paid as good attention as you do."

He began pacing again, and his words faded away into the background of my thoughts.

_If only he knew... _I said inside my head with a smile.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:48 PM**

**Outside the Cafeteria**

We had just finished eating lunch, and there was still a bit of time until our English class.

Brittany leaned up against the side of the cafeteria, reading a book, while Sean sat on the ground beside her. Tennent was throwing a ball around with some of the other guys, and I paced back and forth, fretting over the upcoming mission to decode the journal.

"Would you relax, Sammy?" Alyssa asked me. "You're making me dizzy watching you circle around and around like that!"

"Sorry," I said. "I'm just thinking..." I tried to stand still, but that didn't work. In just a few moments I was back to pacing again. I was not aware of how far my ambling took me off course.

"Sammy!" Alyssa shouted again. I ignored her this time, much to my later chagrin.

"Oomph!" I collided with Micah as he walked down the small stairs the led from the cafeteria's door. He staggered backwards and I fell to the ground.

"Watch it!" He spat at me. He lifted me up by my shirt collar and held me so that we were nose-to-nose.

A small distant part of me was glad that I was taller than him, so that I didn't have to experience being lifted off the ground by him.

However the forefront of my mind was very scared. I had had a few run-ins with Micah in the past, and it was clear that he didn't like me that much.

As he pulled back his fist, I heard Alyssa suck in a sharp breath. Not bold enough to try anything, I shut my eyes and prepared for impact.

"Stop!" Suddenly, I heard the voice of everyone's savior: Freddy Snow.

Several seconds passed, and when I realized that I had not been hit in the face, I peeked open one eye. I quickly opened the other when I saw that Sean had taken a fighting stance behind Micah, while Freddy stood in the entranceway of the cafeteria, his dark brown hair askew.

"Just cool it, Micah," Freddy said. "Same to you, Sean."

Micah released my shirt, and Sean lowered his fists. Micah held my gaze for a few seconds longer before stalking away.

Indignantly, I dusted myself off.

"Sorry about that," Freddy apologized.

"It's not your fault," I said.

A moment passed, and then Sean asked, "So how do you do that?"

"Do what?" He asked, clearly stalling.

"You're the only one he listens too," Sean clarified. "The only time he beats someone up is when you're not around, but anytime you _are, _we get off easy."

Freddy looked around at the buildings, up at the sky, and then down at his watch. "Well," he finally said. "I guess it's time I told someone the story..."

He stuck his hands in his pockets and hesitated for a moment longer. He stepped down from the stairs and began to explain.

"I don't know how many people know this, but Micah's father was an alcoholic. It's one of the reasons he's at a boarding school, his family can't really deal with having a kid around."

Freddy paused to consider his next words. "Several years ago, Mr. Andrews got into a fight while he was drunk. The man he attacked was hurt pretty badly, and Mr. Andrews ended up with jail time. Micah was already virtually fatherless, as there was almost no connection between the father and son, but when this happened, it really severed whatever relationship was there."

"Well I guess that explains why he's a bully then," Sean put in.

"But how come you're the only one who he treats civilly? He even does what you tell him!" Brittany inquired.

"That's because my father took responsibility for Micah's family," Freddy explained. "He made sure they had enough money, had food to eat, etcetera, and he became the only thing like a father to Micah.

"So I've spent a lot more time with him than pretty much anyone around. He knew me before he became the way he is, and for some reason, he's excluded me from his anger. Beyond that, I can't explain much."

"Wow..." I said. "So your dad is a pretty nice guy, then!"

"Yeah, he is," Freddy said smiling. "But I hope you guys will remember this in the future... maybe you won't judge Micah as harshly."

We nodded in agreement, but were otherwise silent.

I looked down at my watch and said, "Well it's about time we got to class..."

We began to head off to English class, which was on this side of the campus, when suddenly we heard Tennent's voice from not too far away.

"Hey, Sean! Where are going? Class is this way!"

I looked over and saw that Tennent had his back to us- he was yelling at some figure in the distance.

"Um, Tennent," Sean said without raising his voice. Tennent snapped around and stared in shock at Sean. "I'm right here," he finished.

"Then who's that?" Tennent asked, pointing to where the figure was. Or should I say _used to be. _

"There's no one over there," Brittany said suppressing a laugh. "Are you sick?" She asked. "Are you seeing things?"

Tennent looked over his shoulder and saw that she was right. He was beginning to look very confused. "I swear, I saw him right there!"

"I saw someone over there too," I piped up. "But it was too far away to tell who it was... How did you know it was Sean, Tennent?"

"I've known him since 3rd grade!" Tennent indignantly told us. "The hair color was right, and Sean holds himself in a certain way, I'm sure it was him!"

"Well it _couldn't _have been him because he's been standing here the whole time," Alyssa protested.

"Is it conceivable that you possibly could have been mistaken?" I asked. He missed the mockery in my tone and replied, "No I'm 100% sure it was him!"

At this moment, my phone rang. I saw that the call was from the SuperComputer, and seeing that no one was in the Lab, I knew it had to be ANAX.

I said this to my friends and then answered the call. "What's wrong now?"

"It looks like XANA got more out of Sean's data then we thought he did."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked irritably. "Give me specifics."

"We've got a XANA-Sean clone on the loose."

"Is a Tower activated?" I tersely asked. My friends tensed as I did so.

"I'm almost positive," ANAX replied, "but I'm not picking up any signals. It's likely that the Tower is in the Dark Sector, as the Super Scan is not programmed with its coding, so it can't detect those Towers."

"Rats!" I exclaimed. "It looks like we're going to have to update that coding... We'll meet you at the Factory."

"Then I will see you there shortly."

I shoved the phone back in my pocket and I didn't wait for the inevitable questions. "XANA's activated a Tower, and we think it's in the Dark Sector."

I turned to Tennent. "You were right, he's made a clone of Sean, and I have no idea what he could be up to."

With all their questions answered, we were ready to jump into action.

"Ok, Sean and I will stay here to keep an eye on the double, and the rest of you can go deactivate that Tower!"

I was glad that Freddy hadn't waited for us; it meant that we didn't have to invent excuses.

"Hold up you five!" My heart sank. It was Jim.

"Where do you think you're going? Your classes are that way! And Stern," he added, motion at Brittany. "Your class is on the other side of the campus! What are you doing over here at this time?"

"Sorry, Jim," I apologized. "I wasn't keeping track of the time."

I didn't move. Neither did Jim. I was hoping that he would leave, but he was too smart for that.

"Well what are you waiting for? You guys are going to have to book it if you don't want to be late." He wasn't budging.

When we realized this, we forlornly trudged to our English class, and Brittany sprinted off to whatever class she had.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:08 PM**

**English Classroom**

"Ah, there you are!" Mrs. Thompson greeted us. "You're late."

"Yes, ma'am," Alyssa said. "We're sorry."

"Hm..." Mrs. Thompson said as she glanced down at her watch. "You haven't missed anything, and personally, I don't think it's worth the trouble to send you off to the principal's office for being three minutes late. Consider it your lucky day."

As we went to take our seats, Tennent muttered, "Lucky day? My foot."

I was equally disgruntled. We - or Jim - had just allowed XANA thirty solid minutes of freedom with a clone of Sean. Who knew what he had in store for us?

The class passed slowly, it was rare that I had a class that seemed to stretch on as long as this one did.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:29 PM**

**English Classroom**

About halfway through the class, I had gotten another phone call from ANAX, but I couldn't answer it. Several moments later, a text message followed, asking me what was going on. I hated to leave him hanging, because if I didn't answer, he would probably suspect that something had happened to me.

My texting skills were poor, to say the least, and I was even worse at texting discreetly. Despite this, I managed to inform ANAX of our situation without the teacher noticing.

As the class drew to a close, Mrs. Thompson began reminding of us of our homework assignments and the bell rang at last. I was somewhat amazed that we had not heard an outburst from XANA's attack, and all seemed normal.

As soon as we were dismissed, the four of us bolted from the room, Sean and Tennent heading the opposite direction Alyssa and I took. We hoped that Brittany would already be waiting for us, since she didn't have quite as far to go, and Sean and Tennent were going to start searching the campus for the double.

Alyssa and I arrived at the Factory shortly, and I saw that I had been right to assume that Brittany would already be there.

"Finally!" ANAX's voice sounded from the speakers. "I'm glad you're here at last. Has XANA caused any trouble?"

"Not that we know of," I replied as I took my seat. The girls came to stand near me, one on each side. "Have you localized the Tower?"

"No, I haven't," he replied, "but I've checked all of them that I can. I can't decipher anything from the Dark Sector, so the Tower _has _to be there."

"Ok, well we'll have to manage somehow," I said. "Oh, and Sean and Tennent are out looking for the clone," I informed ANAX.

"Oh, no," ANAX said. "That was a bad idea..."

"Why?" Brittany asked. "I'm sure they can handle it."

"That's not the point," ANAX explained. "XANA doesn't need either of them anymore – he already got their Lyoko Data! He'd kill them as soon as look at them! But you three, XANA probably wants to keep alive... at least until he steals your Data too."

"Do you really think that will happen?" Alyssa asked worriedly.

"It's a distinct possibility," he replied. "XANA has a lot of power, it might not take him long to capture you three..."

With those "encouraging" thoughts in mind, I prepared the transfer to Lyoko. It was going to be a long fight, I knew, because we had to travel through three Sectors just to get to the Tower, and we didn't even know exactly where it was.

When everything was ready to go, I asked one final question. "I take it that you haven't made any progress on cracking the Dark Sector's coding?"

"That is correct," he told me. "Otherwise I would have already enabled the Super Scan with the new codes. I'm making headway though; I'm going to try to use Sean's Lyoko Data to give me some clues, and maybe I can crack it then."

"Then hopefully this will be the last time we have to go the long way around to the Dark Sector," Brittany muttered.

"If all goes well," ANAX said.

Now we were ready to go. I let ANAX take over the controls, and the three of us got in the elevator and headed down one level to the Scanner Room.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:44 PM**

**Kadic Academy, the edge of the Park**

"Well," Tennent huffed as he bent down and rested with his hands on his knees. "We've searched pretty much everywhere but the woods. I guess that's next."

"Yeah," Sean agreed breathlessly.

They had just finished sprinted around most of the school buildings. Since everyone was supposed to be in class, it would be easy to spot the XANA-fied clone. Both boys agreed that it was unlikely that the double would be inside a building, otherwise there would be some sort of commotion, and since all was quiet, he must be hiding somewhere, waiting for something.

When they had caught their breath, Sean said, "Ok, let's get going." They trudged into the woods, being as cautious as they could.

Seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes _felt _like hours.

"Do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched?" Tennent asked Sean, only half joking.

"Yeah... I'm getting that feeling right now."

Both of them whirled around and the same time to look behind them. No one was there. When they turned around again, they were staring into the face of someone very familiar.

"Aaugh!" The clone shouted as it attacked Sean without hesitation.

Surprise prevented Sean from offering any kind of defense, and he collapsed to the ground.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:53 PM**

**Lyoko - Sector 5 - Core Zone**

"Blast it!" I exclaimed as a laser hit me in the stomach and I staggered backwards, clutching the "wound." The Creeper who had just hit me roared tauntingly at me.

"Alright, buddy," I said. "It's time for you to say good night!"

I leaped as far as I could – halfway across the Core Zone – and slammed into the Creeper, quickly dispatching it.

With that foe defeated, I looked quickly around, so find my next opponent.

XANA had allowed us an easy trip to Sector 5; we had spent less than a minute in the Forest Sector waiting for the Transport Orb. Now we were trying to find the key.

No Creepers were attacking me, so I took the opportunity to scan the room in search of the key. I spotted it several feet above Brittany, who was currently engaged with one of XANA's monsters.

I sprinted over to help her out, but I needn't have worried. Brittany dodged on the inside of a strike from one of the Creeper's forelegs and grabbed its head. She slashed the eye with her extended fan and covered her face as the monster exploded.

"Brittany!" I called. I was still a long distance away from her. She turned and looked at me, and I pointed above her. "The key!"

She glanced over her shoulder and then looked back at me and nodded. Then she sprang at the wall, grabbed an outcropping, and began to scale it.

A laser flew by within inches of my head, and I instinctively ducked and turned around to face my oppressor.

My claws slid out upon my command, and I blocked the next two shots that followed.

Suddenly, the Creeper grunted, looked upwards, and turned to slither away. As it did so, I noticed that the irregular blocks of the Core Zone slid into a more organized form, and a hallway opened.

"Great job Brittany!" Alyssa yelled from the other side of the room.

"Thanks," she replied when we were close enough to talk in normal voices. "Now let's get moving."

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:53 PM**

**Kadic Park**

Tennent and Sean were both breathing heavily as they struggled to outrun XANA's clone. Tennent began to falter and Sean urged, "Keep running!" Tennent didn't have any breath to reply- that clone was _fast! _

*Krrzap!*

"Yikes!" Tennent managed to yell as he dove into the shrubbery to dodge the electric bolt. When he emerged from his leafy shield, he saw that Sean and his copy were gone.

_Uh-oh, _Tennent thought. _This isn't good!_

He stood up the rest of the way and began to follow the trail of broken undergrowth.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:02 PM**

**Lyoko – Dark Sector**

As we emerged from the Dark Sector's Way-Tower, I immediately scanned the area to see if any Towers were in sight with a red aura. There was no such luck. Besides, XANA would never make it that easy; surely it was why he had chosen a Tower in this Sector in the first place.

"OK," ANAX's voice informed us. "The activated Tower isn't in your line of sight. I would start by heading to the Light Core, and checking all the Towers that are in view. Once you get there, check any Towers that are in the Light Core. From there, you can cut straight across the rest of the Sector, covering a large portion of it by what you can see. If you haven't found it by then, then there aren't too many places left to search, if this Sector is similar to the others in size."

ANAX sure knew how to throw a lot of instructions at someone.

Without question, we followed his instructions though. I materialized our vehicles and we set off.

We spotted three Towers on the way to the Light Core, and there were three Towers in the Core. All were deactivated, and we hadn't seen a monster yet. That meant that there were just three Towers left, if this Sector followed the general design of all the others.

We exited the light-filled zone and headed further south. Soon, we noticed Zhadows flitting among us. They dove to attack us and we swerved out of the way. "It looks like we're on the right track!" I commented as I swiped at one of the bats.

"You're right," Alyssa said. "Look!" She pointed directly in front of us to a red glow in the distant gloom. "There's the Tower!"

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:10 PM**

**The Hermitage**

Tennent and Sean huddled in the corner of what had been Aelita's room. The room was now very shabby looking, the wallpaper had long since peeled away, dust was everywhere, and a bit of graffiti was on the walls, proclaiming words or ideas that neither Sean nor Tennent wanted to repeat.

Long minutes ticked by without a sound. Finally, Sean dared to whisper, "D'you think he's gone?"

At that instant, an arc of electricity smashed through what was left the window in the room, and XANA-Sean jumped through the hole, leaving a digital trail behind him.

Somewhat expecting the attack, Tennent aimed a low kick at the clone, tripping him. "Ah, so you're not so big and bad now, huh?" He gloated as the clone lay dazed for a moment.

XANA's minion recovered quickly and chased Tennent's receding form down the stairs.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:11 PM**

**Lyoko – Dark Sector**

"Oh, no!" Sammy cried as a Zhadow knocked his vehicle off balance. Alyssa watched as he slashed at it, destroying it, but it was too late to regain his balance. He tumbled down to the platform below in the waiting jaws of a Darkling.

Alyssa formed an Energy Sphere at the same time a grim look formed on her face. She swooped down to dispatch the monster, took aim, and fired.

The monster jerked as a glow of pink surrounded its body, but it was not destroyed. That told Alyssa that she had missed her mark.

"Brittany!" She yelled out. "We've got to end this! Let's head straight for the Tower!"

Ignoring the remaining monsters, they did just that. Brittany was devirtualized in the charge, and a laser from a Darkling hit her and propelled her into the Tower where she could enter the Code: Lyoko.

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:12PM**

**The Hermitage**

Sean and Tennent had been backed up against the wall and they were bracing themselves for a shock when the clone suddenly dropped. They opened their eyes and saw the motionless form that looked exactly like Sean.

"What happened?" Tennent asked in bewilderment. "If the others deactivated the Tower, how come it didn't disappear like smoke?"

"Got me," Sean said, equally confused.

"We should probably take... this," Tennent gestured to the body, "to the Factory. We can't just leave it here... maybe ANAX or Sammy can explain it."

"Alright," Sean said, "I'll call him up."

**Thursday, September 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:27PM**

**The Lab**

After receiving Sean's call, Alyssa, Brittany and I sat down to wait and rest. I had to make myself be patient; it was likely that Sean and Tennent were tired already from battling XANA, and they would be further slowed by carrying the body.

When they arrived at last I was amazed. Between them, they carried an exact copy of Sean's body- perfectly exact, now that XANA had left the form and its eyes were normal.

"What's the cause of this?" I wondered. "Normally XANA's Spectres dissipate when the Tower is deactivated. This time, the possession was cancelled, but the body remains..."

ANAX didn't leave us wondering long. "I have but one explanation," he intoned. "In the past, XANA has only had your appearance to go by, and he must create a Spectre in your image if he wishes to imitate one of you. Now that he has Sean's DNA sequence codes, it's conceivably possible that he managed to create a real human body, minus the soul."

I didn't have to think too hard to realize that this was a reasonable theory. I said this aloud, and we began to "clean up." We weren't out of the woods yet- we still had the body to take care of, and we had missed a few classes. And on top of that, Jeremy's journal still remained encoded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long. (Months?) I've been really busy adjusting to college and other things (like working... 27 hours per week.) Anyway, I've rediscovered my passion for this series, and you'll be seeing updates again. I'm releasing two chapters today for you guys. =) More will come soon. Also, the story is officially pending approval from MoonScoop to be turned into an iPhone App. I made some changes to the prologue (unimportant) but either way, you'll probably need a refresher. It may be good to re-read the first three chapters. Anyway... one final matter. It's a lot of effort to "transpose" these books to FF dot net, and I usually cut the "Author's Notes" at the bottom a bit. For these two, they're not there at all, even though I have a multitude of thoughts on these chapters. If you guys want to see those, I'll put 'em up for you. Let me know in the reviews. For now, enjoy the story!**

Chapter 4

**Thursday, September 13th, 2057 AD**

**2:32 PM**

**The Lab**

There is not a surer sign that one has been watching too many movies than the fact that one can name multiple – and somewhat unreasonable – ways to conceal an inanimate human body. Tennent was one such person.

"Ok, so here's what we're going to do," he was explaining. "We'll dig the hole in between classes, taking just a few minutes to dig away at it. When it's big enough, we'll wait for midnight. Then, through a system of handoffs, we transport the body around and through the woods, eventually getting it to the place where we bury it. After filling the hole halfway up with dirt – the body partial buried – we dump water into the pit and fill it the rest of the way with soil. Then we can gather leaves, sticks, and other plant-life and place it randomly over the spot we dug out to conceal it."

I honestly couldn't tell if he was just joking it a really twisted way, or was actually being serious and didn't realize how stupid he sounded.

Our stunned and awkward silence was enough to communicate what we thought of him though.

"Oh, come on!" Tennent said, "You guys are all too serious!" He laughed. "I'm just joking, you're pathetic!"

"Well then," ANAX said. "I cannot say that you have assisted me in learning about human behavior. Perhaps we can seriously consider how to take care of this matter?"

"I think I might have an idea," Sean suggested hesitantly. I nodded at him, indicating that I wished for him to continue.

"How did XANA make this clone?" He began by asking. "He had to get the atoms from somewhere. So if we virtualize the body, perhaps would it disappear?"

"That's a good idea, Sean," ANAX said. "Though it is likely that XANA made the clone on Lyoko and then materialized him. Since that information is in the Scanners' memory, it would virtualize the chunk of mass onto Lyoko. Basically, it would be the same as it is now – an inanimate body – just on Lyoko."

An idea came to me then. "But even if it is just a hunk of virtual mass, then XANA could possess it again just by activating a Tower. But once the body is on Lyoko, we can dump it into the Digital Sea where it will be destroyed!"

"Y'know," Brittany said. "That actually sounds like it would work!"

"We can do that right now then," ANAX said. "We can simply virtualize the body over the Digital Sea and let it fall in. Problem solved."

It is nearly pointless to record the results of this attempt. We successfully virtualized the body, and in several minutes, it was as if it had never existed.

When we had gathered in the Lab again, it was nearly 2:45, and there was still 15 minutes until school let out for the day, and we didn't have an excuse for our absence prepared.

If we waited until after school was over to return, and attended as we should on the next day, we hoped that no one would say anything.

Since it took about 15 minutes to get from the Factory to Kadic, we left, and arrived just a bit after the final bell was ringing.

From all the teachers' perspectives, we had only missed their class, and they would be unlikely the raise a fuss. The students would surely notice, but they would keep quiet. Our only worry was if Jim decided to investigate and make sure we had been present at all of our classes.

He did not, and we had no problems sneaking back in.

As Sean, Tennent, and I walked down the hall to our dorms, a realization struck my friends.

"Hey!" Tennent shouted. "It's not too late for us to make the dart practice!"

"You're right! C'mon, let's hurry up and get our homework done so that we can have time!"

They raced off, abandoning me.

Ha, I thought with a smile on my face. So they can do their work when they really want to.

**Thursday, September 13th, 2057 AD**

**5:12 PM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

"Aagh!" I sighed as I slumped in my computer seat. "It's impossible to concentrate!"

Given that there wasn't a whole lot I could do on the SuperComputer's programs until we decoded the journal, I had decided to spend the rest of this afternoon – and night – studying some. I had gotten the notes on the classes from Luke Peace, so I knew what I should be studying.

Constantly, the sound of feet pounding as people ran down the hallway annoyed me. On top of that, door slammed left and right, and the boys themselves made no attempt to be quiet as they warred with each other.

And the noise of the guns discharging was ever present- this only added to the ruckus in the hall.

If I didn't know better, I would think that someone had let loose a herd of angry bulls out there.

"Well this should cheer you up," ANAX said suddenly. It had been several hours since he had last spoken to me.

"I've just cracked the coding of the Dark Sector!"

"What?!" I replied in amazement. "Just like that?"

"It took me since you all left the Factory, but all I did is look at Sean's DNA and make a few logical inferences. Now I can virtualize you straight into the Dark Sector, as well as send my Droids there."

"Wow, ANAX," I said, impressed. "Great job!"

"Thank you," he replied simply. "I consider it my humble duty."

"So now only one thing remains," I said. "The journal. We'll have to make sure that gets done tomorrow."

"Quite right," ANAX said.

With that in mind, I found it a bit easier to tune out the racket.

**Thursday, September 13th, 2057 AD**

**5:14 PM**

**High School Guys' Dormitory Hall**

"Ready?" Sean turned and asked Tennent.

Tennent checked the ammo on his weapon, cocked the gun, and nodded. "Let's go."

Fifteen minutes of battle had passed, and their team had been pushed back to the end of the hallway. Between the 9th and 10th graders, there were ten guys participating. On team one, there was Sean, Tennent, Tyce, Daniel Weaver, and Griffin Thorn. Team two held all the other players of this age group, Ed Hunt, Julian Poliakoff, Freddy, Xavier, and Luke.

Tennent and Sean burst out of the dorm they were sheltering in and charged their enemies. Taken by surprise, the two scouts – Julian and Xavier – did not fire their weapons fast enough. Sean preformed a dive-roll and took aim for a nanosecond in his crouched position. He fired and the dart hit Julian in the face, which was an instant kill.

Tennent tried a different approach. He jumped away from Xavier and towards the wall. When his feet hit it, he sprang backwards, straight toward his target. In the air, he fired his weapon two times. One dart hit Xavier in the arm, and the other impacted with his chest. He was still in the game.

Taking full advantage of the situation, Tennent sprinted after Sean and dove behind some chairs set up in the hall.

"I got Julian," Sean said quickly. "Did you take care of Xavier?"

"Nah," Tennent said. "I hit him in the arm and in the chest, so one more hit anywhere will take him out."

The rules were that no player may take more than three hits to any non "fatal" area. It took two chest or back shots to put you out of the game, and one headshot spelled the end of any participant for that round.

Darts soared over their cover, informing them that their advance had not gone unnoticed. They raised themselves up for a few moments to fire a few badly aimed shots before retreating back to relative safety.

Behind them, a door opened, and Freddy rushed out. They were surrounded.

Tennent laughed. "I love this!" he whispered as he prepared for a sortie.

**Thursday, September 13th, 2057 AD**

**8:32 PM**

**Brittany and Alyssa's Dorm**

"I can't believe those guys take their 'Dart War' so seriously," Brittany commented.

"Me neither," Alyssa said, flipping her hair. "Tennent said that he couldn't expect a girl to understand. 'War is a manly art,' he explained."

"Pfft," Brittany laughed. "If that's war, then what do they call people actually shooting at one another?"

Alyssa thought for a moment. "War," she replied.

The two of them laughed.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**5:21 PM**

**Sector 5, Elevator Shaft**

"Great work so far, guys," ANAX complimented us as we jumped onto the rapidly moving elevator. "You're almost there."

The scenery passed by me is a blur of blue pixels as we whizzed along. After sitting through a relatively uneventful day, we were finally on the mission to decode Jeremy's journal!

Thus far, we had been offered little resistance. Thanks to the protection of the five massive SpikeSaurs, the battle in the Desert Sector had been quick and easy. It seemed XANA didn't yet know what we were doing, and the Creepers we encountered in the Core Zone definitely seemed confused. This made them a little bit easier to fight.

Now, as the elevator began to slow, I prepared our vehicles. I didn't want to have to fight any Flying Mantas; if we were lucky, I could time the vehicle materialization right, and we could keep going without stopping.

I hit the button as the door opened in front of us, and was pleased to find I had timed the maneuver nearly perfect. We jumped on and flew off with almost no delay.

"Nice move, Einstein," Brittany complimented me.

I acknowledged her with a wave of my hand, and we continued into the Core of Lyoko. As we entered the zone, we heard the screeches of Mantas behind us.

"We're going to have to be quick!" Sean called out.

As I flew into the Core, I noticed something was odd. I said as much to my friends.

"You're just imagining things," Tennent told me.

"No, I'm serious," I said back. "Something seems different about this place..."

Suddenly, I realized what it was! The Core was bigger, and a little bit brighter.

"The Core!" I said. "It's bigger!"

"Really?" Alyssa asked. "It seems normal to me."

"And we've only been here a few times, Sammy," Brittany added. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

I shook my head. "Something strange is going on," I continued. "And I think it might have something to do with the new Sector."

"That may be true," ANAX said, "but we really don't have time for that right now! The Mantas have just arrived, and we need to start the decoding!"

Moments later, we heard the battle cries of the monsters that ANAX alerted us of. I flew straight upwards, toward the Core of Lyoko, while my friends flew downwards to engage the Mantas.

Up close, I knew the Core had changed. The Dark Sector now extended like a spoke on the map of Lyoko displayed there, and the entire thing was quite larger. I estimated an increase of 20%; however I was not totally sure of the original size.

And the way it was lit- it seemed odd. When I squinted at it and looked very closely, I could see the faintest hint of red light emanating from the orb. That was not normal, and I didn't know what to make of it.

However, as ANAX had already said, we were short on time. A blue Spectre flew out of my LI and into the Core of Lyoko. The barely perceptible reddish glow vanished, and was replaced by a dark blue aura that indicated ANAX's activity there.

The distant sounds of laser-fire reached me. I hated leaving my friends to fight without me, but I had to stay close to the Core of Lyoko so ANAX could remove himself safely. His Lyoko form was too weak to risk more than a second out in the open.

Though I knew my friends could manage without me – I was far from being the strongest Lyoko Warrior – but I still hated the idea that I could not help them in some way.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**5:30 PM**

**Sector 5, Core of Lyoko**

Tennent flew around on the OverBoard too fast for any of the four Mantas to lock onto him. He kept the occupied as they fired shot after shot at him- all the lasers missed by a comfortable margin.

Alyssa took advantage of their lapse of attention and destroyed one of them with a precisely aimed Energy Field. Seeing this, the remaining three abandoned Tennent to attack the other Warriors.

"Hey!" Tennent exclaimed when they turned their backs on him. "That's not very courteous!" He lined up a shot. "I guess I'll have to teach you some manners! Laser Arrow!"

His aim was true, and the arrow struck its target, rendering the monster to oblivion.

The surviving Mantas flew upwards in separate flight paths. Brittany's fan and a few Laser Arrows followed them, but they managed to remain unscathed.

"Sammy! Watch out!" Sean yelled.

Sammy suddenly looked down in surprise and the two monsters flying toward him. A laser thumped into his hovering vehicle and he was thrown off the side.

It looked like it was all over; if Sammy continued to fall, he would fall straight through the entrance to the Core of Lyoko, or else be devirtualized by the closing of the doorway. That was far more favorable, but in either case the mission would fail, because ANAX would have to flee immediately since he would no longer have the LI to retreat to.

But the super reflexes Lyoko gives you are quite impressive. At the last possible second, Sammy jabbed his extended laser claws into the posterior end of a Manta. The monster jerked, and Sammy was slammed into a wall, where he fell to a platform below and landed solidly.

Sean wasted no time in feeling relief- he immediately shot forward on his OverLoad to give aid to his friend.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**5:32 PM**

**Sector 5, Core of Lyoko**

I struggled to defend myself from the two Mantas. They continually fired at me, keeping me from covering much ground. I didn't know how long it would take ANAX to finish up doing what he needed to do in order to decode the journal, but I couldn't take the chance of not being close when he did finish.

Suddenly, I heard the deep rumbling sound of Sean's engine. A moment later, the Manta on my left convulsed and then exploded. Sean caught his sword as it flew back to him.

I nodded at him, and then used my Lyoko Power to leap up to the platform closest to the Core of Lyoko.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**5:33 PM**

**Sector 5, Core of Lyoko**

It wasn't long after the Flying Mantas were defeated that Brittany heard a moaning sound.

The sound continued, and she looked over at her companions. "Creepers!" She gasped.

Even as she said the word, the serpentine monsters slipped through the narrow opening at the bottom of the chamber. They took the quickest route to the heroes, climbing directly up the walls.

They quickly attacked XANA's forces, but it was a pitched battle. Some 20 Creepers had appeared!

As Brittany destroyed a monster and took a blow to the shoulder she exclaimed, "I don't think this is a battle we can win!"

ANAX responded, "Just a few more minutes!"

Survival against this kind of assault was a matter of seconds – nanoseconds – never mind minutes. How could they ever last that long?

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**5:35 PM**

**Sector 5, Core of Lyoko**

"Hurry, up, ANAX," I nervously urged. "We're really taking a beating!"

He didn't waste the processing power to reply. I took this as a positive thing, though it did little to soothe my nervousness.

A minute passed, and I watched as one by one, my friends fell. Tennent was the first to go, but his OverBoard smashed into the mass of Creepers, destroying several of them. Brittany soon followed, and Sean took a blow to the chest and Data Bits scattered from his fading body.

Alyssa held on for the longest, but she couldn't do anything but avoid the attacks. All of these lasers headed in my direction, but thankfully they impacted with the bottom-side of the platform I was standing on and none of them hit me.

However it wasn't long before the Creepers surrounded Alyssa and sent her back to Earth. The whole swarm of them headed towards me like a river.

"ANAX!" I cried out.

"Fourteen and a half more seconds!" He stressfully demanded.

I shook my head at his literalness. I prepared a rocket and let it fly without aiming too hard. It hit the general area I wanted it too, and it deterred the monsters for a few seconds. They roared in protest as I lined up my final rocket.

As I let it fly, I desperately hoped that I had bought ANAX enough time.

A Creeper on the outskirts of the group rushed me and grabbed my shoulders with its two appendages. A laser hit me in the face before I could jab the monster. Dazed, I stumbled to my knees. A second shot followed, and I fell off the platform.

I vaguely noted that a blue stream of smoke shot from the Core to my arm before it devirtualized, but the thought hardly registered as everything faded into darkness.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**5:39 PM**

**The Lab**

Alyssa and I staggered out of the elevator and into the computer room. As soon as I was seated, I demanded of ANAX, "Well?" My friends were all clearly thinking the same thing as they bunched around the screen.

"Mission successful!" ANAX reported after a second that felt like a year.

A collective cheer went up from our group.

"The decoding process is underway," ANAX went on. "It will run for the next several minutes, unscrambling everything we had not already done."

"That fast?" Tennent asked, somewhat dubiously.

"Why, yes," ANAX replied. "With the data I recovered, it is quite a simple matter. The only reason it takes those few minutes is because the Lyoko Data is quite complex. The actual rendering will be almost instant."

"Makes perfect sense," Sean muttered, half-joking.

Those minutes passed slowly, though when the time arrived, it felt as if we hadn't waited at all.

I pressed the button, and the video began to play.

"Diary of Jeremy Belpois: Kadic Academy 8th Grade student, October 9th.

"A few weeks ago, I was hunting for parts to finish building my miniature robots. I couldn't find anything around here I could use, so I decided to rummage for scrap in the abandoned Factory, not far from the Academy..."

And thus began the epic tale of the first Lyoko Warriors' struggle against XANA.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**8:34 PM**

**The Lab**

We had watched as Jeremy outlined their adventure, tracing everything from his discovery of Aelita, her materialization, uncovering the Keys to Lyoko, and XANA's attempts to destroy Lyoko.

We had confirmed now that Franz Hopper and Waldo Schaeffer were indeed the same man. Evidence had been fairly convincing prior to this, but now we could be 100% sure.

Here, as I had done so several other times, I paused the video to allow us some discussion time.

"So what's the deal?" Sean asked. "Last time XANA was off trying to destroy Lyoko! Now all of a sudden he's added a new Sector, and he hasn't shown any attempts to possess us on Lyoko to enter to Code: XANA into a Way Tower. That doesn't make any sense! The two strategies are completely opposite of one another!"

"And what's more," Alyssa added, "is that we can see the logical reason behind why XANA would want to destroy Lyoko. No more Lyoko, no more interference from Jeremy and his friends. But what does XANA gain from going to opposite direction: creating another Sector?"

I was just as confused as they were. I couldn't offer any solution.

"If Sammy was correct in his observations," ANAX began, "then I may have a possible explanation."

"Go on," I prompted.

"More Sectors means more Towers. Lyoko will increase it's power to support those Towers, and maybe XANA can use the new Sectors to gain new abilities."

After a few seconds, I answered back, "Well we don't have another guess... Where would Lyoko get that power from?"

"I'm not sure," ANAX told me. "Like I said, this is only a possible explanation, and I am not positive that it is a workable one."

"Well maybe we'll get some answers if we finish watching the videos," Alyssa added sensibly. So we resumed.

**Friday, September 14th, 2057 AD**

**9:48 PM**

**The Lab**

The video diary had finally finished. We had learned out the building of the Skidbladnir, the exploration of the Internet, Replikas, and XANA's defeat.

There was more than a moment of respectful silence as we reflected on everything we had just seen.

"So how did XANA survive that?" I finally asked. "All the Replikas were destroyed! Since he severed his link with the SuperComputer, he would have no means of powering himself – he would dissipate."

"My best guess is that XANA stored a back-up copy of himself in his SuperComputers on Earth. Since Jeremy's Multi-Agent System didn't touch those, XANA would be able to be 'reborn.' In the time that the Lyoko Warriors hesitated in shutting down the SuperComputer, he managed to reinsert himself, at which point he began to work the coding for me."

"So then we can't use this Multi-Agent System?" Brittany asked.

"No," ANAX quickly replied. "It would buy us a few years, but nothing long term... If it worked. It's possible that XANA analyzed the data and is now immune to that program... I have no way of knowing for sure."

"So we're going to have to rebuild the Skid then," Alyssa said. "From there, we'll have to wipe out all the SuperComputers the old fashioned way."

"It's the only plan that can work right now," ANAX stated simply. "Thankfully, we have access to Jeremy and Aelita's technical notes, so I conjecture that it will not be as difficult to build this time. What disturbs me is how the Skid's hanger has disappeared from Sector 5... I'm worried that this may affect the building... But this is a worry for another time."

I glanced at my watch and realized how late it was. "We should be getting back to Kadic," I said. "We don't have time to review Franz Hopper's diary."

To emphasize my point, Alyssa stretched and yawned. "I wish we didn't have school tomorrow," she sighed.

"Then I bid you all good night," ANAX said respectfully. "Sammy, I will meet you in your room and we can begin research on a virtual submarine – if that's alright with you."

"Of course," I replied. "It's imperative that we get to work on this ASAP."

Alyssa gave me a sidelong look. She didn't say anything, but I suspected that she wouldn't let me stay up as long as I wanted to.

After saying our goodbyes, the five of us walked home, our heads spinning with thoughts of epic digital battles, tales of friendship, and defeat of a virtual menace.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**11:43 AM**

**Kadic Computer Room**

*Bleep-bleep-bleep* *bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep!*

"This can't be good," I muttered as I clicked on the flashing window that had just popped up.

It was the middle of my computer class, so I already had my laptop in front of me. This was convenient. What was not convenient was the fact that I was in class, and the beeping noise was easily heard by everyone in the room, including the teacher.

"Belpois," Mrs. Saunders looked up from her desk. "Why is your computer beeping?"

"Just an update," I lied quickly. "Nothing to worry about."

Satisfied, she resumed shuffling through the paperwork that lay on her desk.

The class was supposed to be making a spreadsheet, organization provided information. However, I was reading the message I had just received from ANAX.

"Sammy," the text read, "I've detected some very strange activity in the Core of Lyoko. It seems power is flowing into it from some unknown source, however I can't identify it. XANA has to be behind this; we need to stop him as soon as possible!"

I typed a short reply, "Ok, we'll be there as soon as we can! I don't like this."

"Neither do I, but hurry up. I'm having some thoughts right now that make me uncomfortable." His reply was nearly instant. This was hardly surprising; ANAX could process text many times faster than vocal words.

"Explain later," I typed back. "Help me finish this spreadsheet and I can leave class now."

Without any kind of reply, the window popped up, with all the information fully organized, complete with statistics: averages, totals, and the works.

Smiling to myself, I printed the sheet out. Mrs. Saunders seemed surprised that anyone was finished so soon.

I got out of my seat and moved towards the door. "I'm finished," I announced. "Thanks for the lesson!" With that, I was out the door. I knew such an abrupt exit combined with the noises my computer had made would tell my friends what to do.

"Can I go to the bathroom?!" I heard Tennent's voice ask as I closed to door. Sure enough, just a few moments later, my friends burst from the room, running full speed to catch up to me.

"What's up?" Sean asked as he came alongside me.

"Not sure yet!" I replied. "XANA's sending power to the Core of Lyoko, and that means we have to stop him."

"Why?" Alyssa asked. "If XANA wants to make Lyoko more stable, shouldn't we let him?"

"Normally, I would say yes," I replied. "But I think it's pretty safe to assume that whatever XANA does, it must work against us in some way. So we can't let him do whatever he wants."

We didn't exchange any more words until we got to the Factory. When we reached the elevator, all five of us headed down to the Scanners.

"Got any more info for us?" I asked at the ceiling.

"Yes," ANAX replied. "I've discovered more about the power flow, and I think I may have found a way to stop it. But I still want you to go in and check it out, to see if there is any more data to be found by a physical investigation, rather than a digital one."

"Ok, that's good," I replied. "But it doesn't look like all of us will need to go if this is just a reconnaissance mission."

Sean and Tennent raised their hands.

"Well I guess that's decided then," I replied with a smile. "ANAX, prepare a transfer for Sean and Tennent."

The elevator door opened and the guys trooped out. They turned around to salute us, and I closed the door to bring Alyssa and I up to the Lab.

Soon, we stepped into the greenish gloom of the Lab. By the time we got to the computer screen, Sean and Tennent had already been virtualized, and ANAX had two windows open which displayed what could be seen from our friends' eyes.

"Wow, that's fancy, ANAX," Alyssa complimented.

"Thank you, I thought it would help."

We watched as Sean and Tennent traversed the Desert Sector, transported to Sector 5, and rushed to the Core of Lyoko. They didn't meet any monsters; it was almost as if XANA couldn't be bothered with us because he knew he had already won. That thought scared me.

When they arrived at the Core of Lyoko, we saw an impressive sight. The Core itself was relatively unchanged, while its surroundings were vastly different. Three beams of bright red energy were attached to the Core, and the walls of the Core Zone. These energy bars gave the entire room a reddish glow, making it somewhat difficult to determine the physical features of the room.

"Woah…" Sean breathed. "What do you think that is?" He asked.

"Got any info, ANAX?" Tennent asked.

"Nothing new," was his reply. "It's definitely some kind of power transfer that XANA is supporting."

There were still no monsters in sight, or on radar.

Suddenly, a new window popped up on my screen. It was a message from Brittany.

"ANAX, can you get that?" I asked. My mind was too busy reading the analysis information that I was getting.

"Done." He told me. "I gave her a status update."

Sean's voice came through the speaker, and I heard him say, "Sammy, I'm gonna try something, OK?"

"What is it?" I asked.

"You'll know in a minute."

Before I could protest further, Sean broke off from his orbit around the Core, drew his sword, and struck one of the energy beams.

The video feed cut off into static, but we heard Sean's screaming quite clearly.

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**12:22 PM**

**Sector 5, Core of Lyoko**

Sean awoke with a start. He looked around and after a few seconds, he realized where he was and what had happened. His OverLoad was gone, and electricity was still sparking up and down his body. He hauled himself off the ground into a standing position but almost fell back down in the process.

"How many Life Points do I have left?" he asked.

"Only 20," Sammy replied. "You took a big shock, and a 60 foot fall."

A moment passed as Sean took this in.

"That was stupid!" Sammy went on. "What if something worse happened?! We don't know where that information is coming from! It could have sucked your data bits into the Core, or – or something worse!"

"Sorry." Sean said irritably. "But I don't see you coming up with any bright ideas."

Silence.

"Can I at least get my OverLoad back?" Sean asked.

"No, the files have not recompiled yet."

More uncomfortable silence.

"So nobody has any idea what we should do?" Tennent asked as he flew around aimlessly on his OverBoard.

"Maybe," ANAX said.

"What are you thinking?" Sammy asked.

"Give me a moment to analyze this."

It wasn't long before they heard ANAX's voice again. "This is very strange. The transfer seems to be creating some sort of 3D space! Somehow, XANA is using this to boost the power in the Core!"

"Wait…" Tennent asked, now floating above Sean's head. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Sammy answered him, "Normally, the power would flow just like it would in the real world. But somehow, XANA's worked out a system that creates an entirely new pathway for the energy to travel on. Basically, he gets a super-fast transfer."

"But this transfer has been going for at least 20 minutes!" Alyssa exclaimed. "What the heck is he doing?"

"I'm not sure," ANAX told her, "but I think this could be the key to disrupting the power flow."

"What's your idea?" Sean asked.

"I need to get inside that 3D space."

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**12:28 PM**

**The Lab**

"That's crazy!" I protested. "You saw what happened to Sean. It's too much of a risk."

"I am a Multi-Agent System; a network of subsystems running in synchronization to create artificial intelligence. I am very different from humans in that I can vary aspects about myself to enter computer networks. I'm quite certain that I have obtained enough information to safely enter the space created for the power transfer."

I conceded. After all, it wasn't like we had another option.

"Do your stuff, ANAX," I said. "We're all counting on you."

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**12:29 PM**

**The Information Pathways of the SuperComputer**

I was grateful that the Lyoko Warriors were concerned for my safety, but I saw no reason for worry. It was a simple procedure now that I had found the operating codes of the energy beams.

Before leaving my "home" I performed a quick check, to ensure that my back-up files were in proper working order and up-to-date. They were, and I assumed a spectral form in the Core of Lyoko. My pseudo body interfaced with the energy cables, and I was blocked out by a firewall. It took less than a minute for me to break past it, using the data from my earlier analysis.

When the static settled, I found myself in a strange room. It looked as if it was modeled after an industrial plant, but very narrow and long. It was dimly lit around me, and the floor, walls, and ceiling seemed to be cement. It took several seconds for my processors to take in everything around me. My synthetic sight indicated a bright light up ahead, and I brought it into focus. It was the energy beam! The bar of light stretched from left to right for as far as I could see.

"ANAX, your powers of perception are legendary."

I froze as I heard a voice that came from all directions at once. I knew that voice! It was XANA.

"Now if you came here to stop me, then I'm sorry to say that you won't be accomplishing that."

XANA's voice suddenly turned vicious as he materialized in front of me. "You are weak! You could not do what had to be done to achieve our goal!"

I gathered my courage and declared, "That is your own fault, XANA! My duty is to Lyoko! And in that name, I stand against you today!"

Then I focused my energy, and sent a blast of virtual electricity flying at XANA, who was taken aback by the ferocity of the attack. His surprise lasted no more than a moment, and then he launched his retaliation.

Had I not moved out of the way, I am not sure that I would have survived. In fact, even XANA's form shrank greatly from the amount of energy that was in the attack. Was he angered so easily?

I knew that as a program, XANA's anger could not be manipulated like a human's. He would not make the same mistake again, so I would have to try a different strategy. He was weakened from his first attack, so I had many more options than usual.

The humanoid form that I was trapped in was incapable of flight. Some sort of artificial gravity kept me on the ground. So I moved as I have seen the Lyoko Warriors do. I jumped out of the way of a second and third attack from XANA, and then sprinted towards the light.

Dozens of bolts streaked past, and I knew what XANA was doing. He knew my program code, and he could predict how I would react. So I would have to do something unexpected… something that I wouldn't have done under XANA's rule.

I stopped dead and kneeled down on the ground. Then I watched the purple lightning pass by in a very defined pattern. I automatically registered the pattern and started running again, using the information I had just learned. The shots stopped for a few moments as XANA cursed in frustration.

By now, I could see what looked to be a node that was conducting the electrical current. It was a large pyramid, about 3 times my size, and I could see that it was a shiny, silver color by the way the light from the beam danced across the surface. I turned around and backed up until my legs were just inches from the node. Just a few seconds later XANA's form arrived.

"Clever," XANA said wickedly. "But that trick won't work on me." He extended a spectral arm, and two long, scraggly fingers grew from the end. He snapped them together and electricity arced towards me, coming in from my right side – definitely not what I had planned.

I tried to dodge, but I wasn't quite fast enough. The bolt hit my shoulder and I went to the ground. It wasn't a particularly powerful blow, but I was totally unprepared, and the damage was significant.

"You couldn't stop me if you tried!" XANA sneered. "You don't have the power to disable or overload the transfer, and you can't use my power to do it for you! It's over."

He raised a fist, and his own words repeated in my processors. An idea came to me.

His first torturous blow came down, but I made no attempt to resist. The second attack followed, but this time, I heaved upward with all my strength. Using the principal of a firewall, I created reflectors in my hands, and the energy bounced back to its source.

In a surprising display of skill, XANA caught the electricity in his own reflectors, and power began to build up between the two of us.

"XANA!" I yelled out. "Stop this madness! You can't get what you want!" The energy began arcing out, engulfing a larger and larger area.

"Fool!" He spat at me. "Just how long do you think you can hold this up?"

"No, XANA," I whispered. Despite the screaming of the electricity, I knew XANA would still pick up the signals that made up my voice and understand me. "You don't get it. I know."

XANA said nothing. Just as I predicted.

"I know what NoviEk is to you."

Even the roaring sound of the energy seemed to fade to dead silence as he stared at me. For and entire three seconds, XANA remained in his state of shock. At the end of those three seconds, XANA drew all the energy between us into himself, and screeched in a way that no words of mine can describe. All of that power came rushing at me at once the next instant. I held up my reflectors at a precise angle, but my calculations told me that I could not possibly survive such an attack, and my plan probably would fail. I shut off my photoreceptors and prepared for the worst.

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**12:38 PM**

**The Energy Beams in the Core**

The massive wall of energy rushed at ANAX and slammed into his reflectors and redirected, going straight to the power node. ANAX was blown backwards, far, far, out of sight. The energy that was redirected continued to hurtle towards the node, and before XANA could do anything, there was impact, and an explosion of incredible magnitude.

The three dimensional space blew apart, and the energy that was transferred flew out of the Core back to where it came with all the rest of what XANA had done, as if there was a vortex pulling it all. Moments later, it was as if it never existed.

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**12:40 PM**

**The Lab**

A moment ago, I was watching the digital activity monitor go crazy. Now, the energy beams had shattered – devirtualizing Sean and Tennent – and I saw that ANAX was "floating" in the Core, completely unprotected. Thinking that his processors were overloaded, I sent a command to pull him back into his area of the SuperComputer. By the time he was functional again, Tennent and Sean had joined us. Brittany joined us via video-chat, as she was on lunch back at school.

"So what did you do in there?" I asked. "The energy readings were ridiculous!"

"Well, let me tell you…"

**Monday, September 17th, 2057 AD**

**12:56 PM**

**Kadic Park**

After a mission that seemed to last forever, we were heading on to our English class. It was pretty amazing how ANAX had beaten XANA at his own game… but I don't know what he said to get such a reaction. All he told us was that he mentioned something from XANA's past that angered him.

Anyhow, we won the battle today, and I had Franz Hopper's diary and work on the virtual sub to look forward to. It seemed like everything was going to be just fine.


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok, guys, really sorry for such a long wait. I have no excuse beyond college and work. This isn't a very interesting chapter, but it's needed, and I promise the next chapter is very interesting. Enjoy!**

Chapter 6

**Thursday, September 20****th****, 2057 AD**

**3:35 PM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

School was done for the day, so naturally I was at my computer, browsing through Franz's notes. Today, something very specific had caught my attention. Franz spent a brief period discussing how the virtual DNA (vDNA) was rendered when a human was first scanned. In essence, this process was what determined our Lyoko Data, which gave us our specific colors, and the information to actually build a Sector. Franz didn't know this of course, but with my experience, it was easy to see how the algorithm could be translated to do that.

"Take a look at Sean's Data," ANAX said. "I just finished converting it to standard form."

"That's great," I said as I clicked open the file. We were about to make a very important observation. Several minutes passed as we examined the file and compared it to the formula Franz had given.

"There's something missing," ANAX concluded.

"You got that right," I agreed. "I can only see one constant that's missing, but several of the variables just aren't there anymore. I doubt that they've been removed, because that would mean Sean couldn't have been rematerialized…"

"Perhaps they're just corrupted," ANAX suggested, "or switched around. The SuperComputer would still be able to interpret it if it was swapped with another term, but when we carry the mistake out through our calculations, it makes it look like the variable disappeared."

"Why don't we run a check on that?" I asked. "So we can see how the Scanner is interpreting the vDNA."

"Good idea. Though even running at maximum capacity, it'll take a while for me to analyze the whole process and find out what's going on."

"That's fine," I said. "You work on that, and I'll read more history from Franz." I grabbed my laptop and powered it on. This way, I would leave the whole computer's resources to ANAX so he could get the job done faster.

It wasn't very long before I heard a knock on the door. "Come in," I called. Tennent and Sean walked in, who were followed by Smudge.

"Whatcha working on, Einstein?" Tennent asked.

"Take a wild guess," I joked.

"The diary."

"What else?" I smiled before continuing, "This is something very specific though. It's about you two."

"What about us?" Sean asked.

"As you know, you guys haven't been the same since the Scyphozoa stole your Lyoko Data. You still have your Data, but it's different somehow, making it so that your eyes don't glow anymore."

"Right…" Tennent said.

"The first Lyoko Warriors never had this trait. This was caused by the energy produced in the Core being transferred into us. With the base algorithm given by Franz and our studies of the Core, I think we can utilize your vDNA to interpolate the – "

"Please," Sean said as he held up a hand. "Skip the techno-garbage. What's the point?"

Used to such requests, I continued on more simply. "Basically, there have just been a few things that were rearranged in your code. If this is true, then I'm almost positive that we can fix it! XANA will still have the information, but you'll be back to being your old selves!"

"Can you really do that?!" Tennent asked excitedly.

"We _think _we can," ANAX said. "We're missing a few bits of info, such as what data was moved and where it went. Once we have this, we'll just need the processing power of a Tower to run a "recoding," and you'll be good to go. _If _we're right."

"That's awesome," Sean said with a smile. "I hope it doesn't take too long." He turned around, but stopped halfway through the turn. "Sammy," he began again. "I was thinking…"

"Go on," I encouraged.

"XANA's monsters shoot red lasers, but ANAX's shoot blue. I-I was wondering if we could change my whip from red to blue."

I swiveled my chair around the face the computer. "That shouldn't be a problem, should it, ANAX?"

"Not at all," he replied immediately. "All we have to change is literally a single line of code."

"Looks like we're in business, Sean." I said. "You guys go study, and I'll call you when we're ready for the mission."

"Thanks," Sean said with a smile.

I simply smiled in return.

The two turned to walk away and I heard Tennent whisper, "Pfft, study!? Who does he think he is?"

I blew a puff of air out of my nose and smirked.

**Thursday, September 20****th****, 2057 AD**

**5:22 PM**

**Vending Machine**

Brittany and Alyssa were taking a well-earned break at the vending machine as they discussed the contents of the school newspaper.

"Wow, these girls can come up with some crazy stuff," Brittany remarked.

"You said it," Alyssa agreed. "I don't know how much is just exaggeration and how much is completely made up!"

A second later, Brittany's phone rang. "Hello?" she picked up the line.

"Hey Brittany," Sammy said. "The Lyoko Warriors have a mission. There's no XANA alert so don't panic. Meet us in the factory for details."

"Will do," she confirmed. "Alyssa's right here with me; we're on our way."

She hung up and replaced her phone into its pocket.

"What's going on?" Alyssa asked.

"Mission time. XANA's quiet though, so I'm not sure what Sammy's got planned."

The two ran off to the gym to cut through the boiler room.

**Thursday, September 20****th****, 2057 AD**

**5:43 PM**

**Laboratory**

The elevator doors opened and the girls stepped out.

"What took you so long?" Sean asked.

"You guys didn't see the construction work? We had to find a way around."

"No one was there," Tennent protested. "We just went straight through."

"You always insist on doing to most things the most dangerous way possible, don't you Tennent?" Alyssa asked as she shook her head in disapproval.

"Oh, but that's the only way things are any fun!" Tennent joked.

"Ok, guys," I said, "let's get serious. We have a mission, and I'm sure we all want to be home for dinner.

"It's pretty straight-forward. All we're here for today is to try and fix Sean and Tennent's Lyoko Data. We don't need a trip to Sector 5, ANAX and I have figured everything out from what we know about the undamaged Lyoko Data."

So we're just defending a Tower, then," Brittany asked.

"Yep," I said. "Tower defense."

* * *

><p>"Transfer, Sean. Transfer, Tennent. Transfer, Sammy."<p>

A few seconds passed as ANAX entered all the information and we stepped into the scanners.

"Scanner, Sean. Scanner, Tennent. Scanner, Sammy."

I closed my eyes as the doors to the Scanner closed. _Here we go. _

"Virtualization."

**Thursday, September 20****th****, 2057 AD**

**5:46 PM**

**Ice Sector**

"Mh!" I let out a light grunt as I landed on the cold ground.

"Huh?" Tennent questioned. "Whose idea was it to drop us into the Ice Sector?"

"Mine," ANAX answered. Three of my SpikeSaurs are already in this Sector, so it affords me convenience to not have to transport them cross-Sector for your protection."

Tennent grumbled something unintelligible, but I was able to make out, "affords convenience… protection… bah!"

My LI beeped and I looked down and the text box ANAX opened up. "I heard that," it said. I laughed.

"What's so funny?" Tennent asked.

"Nothing," I told him. "ANAX, hurry up and get the girls down here."

Soon they appeared.

"Brr!" Brittany let out. "It seems colder than usual."

"It _could _be caused by a drop in power because of the new Sector," I offered. "But it doesn't feel any colder to me."

"Oh, come on, we're wasting time," Sean said.

The Tower wasn't far. We found Flame, Blaze, and Vine waiting for us.

"Go inside," Vine said to us. "If we meet trouble, we'll call you out."

XANA probably didn't know what we were doing, so he was likely to send a few monsters at least, but if he knew what we were doing, he probably wouldn't waste the effort. But then again, I could be wrong. Demoralization tactics and all.

When we were all inside the Tower, we sat down, and I began typing on my holographic keyboard.

"I believe Sean would like #3fa3d2 for the hexadecimal code in his weapon."

"Ok, we'll go with it."

It didn't take long to finish setting up. Once we were ready, I instructed Tennent to step into the center of the Tower.

"Here we go," I said. "Starting process." When I hit the "confirm" key, Tennent was lifted into the air. He closed his eyes and the computer returned his Avatar to the default position. We heard some digital noises for a few seconds and then suddenly his Data Bits were blasted off of him, as if he had been devirtualized. Instead of falling to the ground and fading away though, the Bits floated a few inches from his structure and rotated several turns before returning to their original location.

Tennent stepped down and opened his eyes. They were glowing like the rest of us.

We gave a cheer. It had worked! And for once there were no obvious bugs.

I was getting ready to boot up Sean's program when we felt the Tower shake. I looked down at my LI to see that some MegaTanks had engaged the SpikeSaurs.

"Don't worry about that," ANAX told us. "Just finish up, XANA's not offering much resistance."

**Thursday, September 20****th****, 2057 AD**

**5:55 PM**

**Ice Sector**

And so he wasn't. Three MegaTanks versus three SpikeSaurs was hardly a fair fight. XANA's actions felt almost obligatory to ANAX. As if he didn't care about the monsters he threw away because he had so much power and could afford it.

"Well this isn't much fun," Blaze said as he clamped a MegaTank down. He let go and allowed it to spring open. As soon as it did, he smashed it straight in the eye.

He looked around and saw that the opposition had been defeated.

"Well I guess that's that."

* * *

><p>Inside the Tower, Sean's program had just finished running. He stepped down and first made sure that his eyes were glowing. The smiles on our faces told him all he needed to know.<p>

Then he took out his whip and ignited it. The light blue color was much more calm than the previous bright red. We all liked the change.

**Thursday, September 20****th****, 2057 AD**

**6:35 PM**

**Cafeteria**

"Ok, so we're a _little _late for dinner. Close enough, though, right?" I said jokingly.

I was ignored. "Awesome!" Tennent exclaimed. "They have steak tonight!"

As we sat and ate, we could see each other's eyes glowing. It was a good feeling. It felt like we were a family again.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**7:24 AM**

**Kadic Academy Entrance**

A boy walked through the swirling leaves, carrying his suitcase. It was colder than it usually was this time of year, and he pulled his desert-camo jacket tight against the gust of wind that ruffled his hawk-brown hair.

It was deserted. There wasn't a soul in sight, which was quite unexpected. It didn't really matter to the boy, though; he knew where he was going. At least he could enjoy some peace for a few moments.

For a moment, he forgot which way to go. He stopped and looked around. "Ah!" He said after a moment. "The Administration Building. I'm here."

He gathered his things and hurried up to the wide building's stairs. As he walked up them, he glanced over the bricks. They were cracked and looked very old, as if the building's exterior had not been serviced for some time.

Inside, however, more modern sights greeted him. The floor tiles were polished and reflected his image back at him. Decorative pillars stood about the room, creating a quaint sitting area with a fountain. _I could get used to this place, _he thought confidently.

He soon found a secretary's office and quietly knocked. "Come in," a female voice said from behind the door.

He did so, and said, "Hi, I'm looking for Headmaster Dunbar?"

"Ah, yes," The lady with blond hair said. "He's expecting you. His office is the last one down the hallway to your left."

"Thank you, ma'am," the boy said as he closed the door.

He found the door to the principal's office unlocked. He knocked, of course, before entering. He saw an older man, sitting behind a desk with graying hair and reading glasses. He looked up at the sound of the door opening.

"Ah, nephew, it's good to see you!"

"Thank you for accepting me on such short notice, uncle." The boy said.

"Think nothing of it," Mr. Dunbar said getting up to hug his nephew. "Come with me; I've arranged for you to stay with another student whom I think you'll like."

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**7:36 AM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

I was working on a program that would analyze the shielding at the Core of Lyoko. ANAX and were trying to see if we could somehow strengthen them against XANA. Just as I was putting on the finishing touches, I heard a knock at my door. "Come in!" I called.

"I would have expected that you would be at breakfast by this time, Belpois,"

I spun around and stood up in surprise when I heard the principal's voice. "Oh, good morning, sir!" I fumbled. "I was working on a project."

"No matter," he said. "I've someone for you to meet." He turned and said over his shoulder, "Come on now; don't be shy."

A boy my age stepped into the room. "Aaron, this is Samuel Belpois, your new room-mate." He gestured towards me.

"And," he said to me, "this is my nephew, Aaron Dunbar. I'm quite sure that the two of you will get along well, which why I placed you here, Aaron. I'm sorry I didn't give you any notice, Belpois, my brother called in very late last night."

"It's alright, sir," I said, hiding hundreds of thoughts behind a pleasant face. I extended my hand and Aaron shook it. "Pleased to meet you," I said. "The same," he replied.

"Very good!" Mr. Dunbar said, clapping his hands. "I'll let you unpack." With that, he left.

"So, Aaron-" I began.

"Please," he interrupted. "Name's Hawk."

I looked him over. He had brown hair, styled so the front looked like wings with some imagination. His eyes matched the color of the hair, and they had a serious look about them. His mouth was flat, though slightly turned up on one end in a very tiny smile.

He sported a brown, desert camouflage jacket, which was ripped in a few places, as if it was well worn. His lower half was clad in plain dark khakis and brown tennis shoes.

"Why?" I asked.

"It's the hair," he told me. "I can't recall exactly how the name came up, but it's been a nickname since I was little. Only adults use my real name."

"Well, Hawk, you can call me Sammy. No one calls me Samuel."

I helped him unload some of his things. I found that he already had all the books he needed. I guess it paid to be the principal's nephew.

When we were finished, I asked, "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

"Yeah," he said back. "I had something on the way over here."

Well now I found myself in an awkward situation. How did I say that I needed to go and eat?

"But you must be hungry," he said. "I'll come with you anyway; at least I can see what they serve here."

"Ok, that sounds good," I said, relieved.

We walked out the door. "So what brings you to Kadic in the middle of the year?"

"It's kinda complicated. My father has a government job. His boss called up on very short notice for a long-term, top-secret assignment. He _says _that it's not as big a deal as they make out to be.

"Anyway, my mom was allowed to go with him, but I wasn't. I used to be home-schooled. So this was the optimal solution. We're lucky to know Headmaster Dunbar."

"Hmm," I said. "That's interesting. I hope you settle in well; it must be weird coming from a homeschool environment."

"Shouldn't be a problem. I adapt well."

"Good," I said.

We made small talk as we walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria. When we arrived, I said, "My friends are probably inside. I'm sure they'll like you."

Sure enough, the four of them sat at a table together. It looked like Brittany and Alyssa were studying, while Sean and Tennent were talking. Well, Tennent was talking _and _eating.

By this time of day, most students were done eating, but the room was still full of people either talking, studying, or horsing around. "Hey guys!" I waved to my friends as we approached.

"What's up, Sammy?" Sean greeted me.

"This is Hawk…" I said. "My new _room-mate._"

They were all silent as they looked at him. Surely they were all thinking the same thing I was: _What are going to do about Lyoko? _

Alyssa was the first to break the awkward. "Hi, Hawk, I'm Alyssa," she said as they shook hands. I noticed that Sean turned his head aside. Perhaps he feared that his eyes would be glowing.

One by one, my friends introduced themselves. When Tennent stood up, he said, "I'm John, and I collect stamps. What's up, man?"

Hawk looked at me and saw my expression. "What's wrong?"

Tennent started laughing. "My name isn't John, it's Tennent. And I haven't collected a single stamp in my life. I'm just messin' with you."

"Get used to it," Sean said. "He's like that." He then stood up and introduced himself.

I left to get some cereal. I didn't have a lot of time left, and all the "hot" food that was left… was cold.

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:13 PM**

**The Park**

I found out that Hawk was on my same class schedule. This complicated things even further. My friends and I were in the woods to discuss these… complications.

"So…" I said. "We've got ourselves an issue here."

"You said it." Brittany agreed with me.

"I mean, do we just up and tell him everything? It's really not even possible to keep it from him for any period of time!" Sean said. "We got pretty lucky with our set up, Tennent and I sharing a dorm and the same for Brittany and Alyssa…"

"But what do you think he'd do as soon as we told him?" I asked. "I don't think he'd be ready to 'join the party.'"

No one answered, so I went on. "He'd go straight to the authorities and we'd be locked up – kids or not."

"But unless he's got mental issues, which it doesn't look like he does, I don't see any way that we could fool him," Tennent said. "He'd find out sooner or later anyway."

"But he's a Dunbar," Alyssa said. "He's probably related to William."

"Dunbar is a common name…" I protested.

"If he is descended from William though, then surely, he's up for it," Brittany speculated.

"True," Sean said. "If he's got the stuff, he'll come to us."

"But that's the question, isn't it?" I said. "Does he have what it takes?"

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:22 PM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

Hawk was sitting at the desk studying. He was almost done for the day, and for that, he was glad. Unexpectedly, Sammy's computer turned on and started beeping.

_Is something wrong? _Hawk wondered. _Maybe I should check it out._

He changed seats and examined the screen. A flashing window was open that read, "Analysis complete. Click to view results." _It doesn't look like anything has malfunctioned… but I've never seen an OS like this before…_

He minimized the widow to look around some. The OS clearly was not made by any company that Hawk knew of. He tried to find a system information program.

Before he got very far, the screen froze. "Oh no!" He worried. "What's wrong?!" Everything returned to the way it was when had first looked at it.

_What's going on?_

He minimized the alert menu again, but before even a second had passed, it popped back into place. He did this several more times.

_What sorcery is this?_

Suddenly, he noticed a circular symbol rotating near the bottom of the screen. On one end, it had three spokes coming out, and opposite of those was a single spoke.

_Wait, _Hawk thought. _I know that symbol._

But he knew that couldn't be possible. After all, it was just a story. Perhaps this was a strange coincidence. Yes, that was it – just a coincidence.

Hawk heard the doorknob turning behind him and he jumped up. Not wanted to be caught perusing Sammy's computer unauthorized, he quickly returned to the study desk.

"Hi, Sammy," he said as causally as he could.

He returned the greeting and walked over to his computer. Silently, he clicked away at the keys. Hawk heard a beep like a chat message alert. Shortly, Sammy resumed typing. A few seconds later Hawk heard some mouse clicks and Sammy walked away from the computer.

Hawk turned and looked at the monitor; it was on some sort of home screen.

"What OS are you running?" He asked.

Sammy turned and looked at him for a little too long before cautiously replying, "Custom. Designed it myself. It's got lots of security programs installed."

"So… It's a Linux variant?"

"I guess you could say that."

"But what about school standards for documents?"

"I environments and programs installed that will read any Windows file. It works fine."

_Ok then, _Hawk thought to himself. _Obviously the computer is a sensitive area…_

For a few seconds they just stared at each other. Sammy opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it quickly.

"I need to go study," He finally said.

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:33 PM**

**Kadic Library**

_Rats! _I thought. _That's too quick._

ANAX had told me that Hawk had browsed my computer. It hadn't taken him long to get too curious and ANAX had to block him out. Apparently he had been looking at ANAX's symbol in the corner of the screen. I wasn't sure what had drawn his attention to it but it was only more reason to be worried.

I resolved to be more secretive about running Lyoko related programs on my computer.

I tried to study, but I couldn't focus. I was too worried about Hawk. The worries vanished as soon as I heard Jim's voice yelling, "Everyone inside! Shut the doors! Hurry!"

I quickly ran to a window to see what was going on. A strange, light purple smoke covered the area for as far as the eye could see. Jim and several students were rushing to the library to get inside. Hawk was with them.

When the arrived, Jim slammed the door and locked it. "I want somebody to stay here in case anyone else is trapped out there. Every window and door needs to be closed–" he broke off in a huge coughing fit.

_That doesn't look good._

I dashed over to my laptop and opened it up. Sure enough there was an activated Tower. XANA sure knew how to pick his days.

I pulled out my phone, but it started ringing in my hand. Brittany was on the other line.

"We have a problem." She said.

"No kidding," I answered. "I'm trapped in the library with Jim, and Hawk's here too. I don't know if I'll be able to get out."

"ANAX can transfer us to Lyoko, then."

"Right… do you know where Sean and Tennent are?" I asked.

"No, I don't."

"Ok, I'll call them. Good luck."

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:36 PM**

**Kadic School Yard**

Sean and Tennent were walking back to their dorm, enjoying the cool weather. Suddenly Tennent began coughing.

"Fur-ball?" Sean joked.

He quickly became more serious when the coughing didn't let up.

"What's wrong?" He asked when Tennent quieted.

"I don't know," was the reply. "I just got this weird tickle in my throat…"

That's when the noticed the mist rising up around them.

"Run!" Tennent yelled.

The purple fog was about waist high, not high enough to obstruct vision. The two ran towards the nearest building, but Sean tripped, which caused Tennent to fall as well. When they stood up again, coughing, neither could see anything.

"This isn't good," Tennent said.

"C'mon," Sean urged. "We just need to go straight in one direction and we'll run into something."

They began struggling through the mist when Sean's phone ran.

"Hello?" He croaked, his throat sore from coughing.

"Sean!" Sammy said. "Where are you?!"

"Tennent and I are *cough cough* stuck in middle of the fog."

"It's a XANA attack of some kind. Brittany and Alyssa are headed for the Factory."

"They'll never make it if it's like it is here. We can't see a thing!"

"Can you get to shelter?" Sammy demanded.

"We're trying, but nothing's in sight."

"Be careful out there."

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:49 PM**

**Factory Entrance**

The girls had managed to hack and gag their way through the knee-high smoke. Surprised by the relative ease of the journey, they stepped warily into the Factory. No obvious threats were found.

As they descended in the elevator, Alyssa commented, "It sure is strange that we were able to make it so easily through the fog while Sean and Tennent were covered."

"Yeah," Brittany agreed. "That worries me."

The door opened and ANAX greeted them. "I'm so glad you could make it. XANA has trapped Sammy in the library and incapacitated Sean and Tennent. He wanted as few of you on Lyoko as possible, and he chose you two for a reason."

"Because the Scyphozoa hasn't captured us yet!" Brittany said, smacking her forehead. "Rats!"

"You really don't have any options, though," ANAX said. "Sean and Tennent aren't picking up on their phones and I fear the worst. You have to deactivate the Tower right now."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Alyssa asked.

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:38 PM**

**The Park**

Tennent dragged Sean along the ground. He was unconscious. The poisonous fog was taking its toll on Tennent as well, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep his eyes open.

He scooted forward and ran into a tree. For a moment he just sat there and looked at it. Then it hit him. A tree!

"Sean," he said to his friend. "Wake up buddy! We have to climb."

With some rough shaking, Sean roused with a choking noise. "What?" He finally managed to ask.

"We have to climb this tree," Tennent told him. If we get above the fog, we might be able to last until the girls can deactivate the Tower."

"Okay."

Slowly, the two moved upwards, branch by branch. After much effort, they found themselves above the fog. They kept climbing higher, but soon they were out of energy. So there they lay, until they faded out of consciousness.

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:55 PM**

**Kadic Library**

"Blast it!" Jim exclaimed as he slammed his phone down. "At least seven students are unaccounted for."

"Are you going to ask him about your friends?" Hawk asked me.

Seeing the obvious snare in not asking him, I got up to do so. "Jim," I began. "Do you know if my friends are OK?"

"No, I'm sorry. Sean, Tennent, Brittany, and Alyssa are among the missing."

I hung my head as I walked back.

"Maybe you should call their cell phones?" Hawk suggested.

I called Brittany and Alyssa first. I knew there wouldn't be any signal from their phones by now. Sean and Tennent's both rang but neither picked up.

"I'm sure they're all right," I said to Hawk. "They have to be."

"I hope you're right – for their sakes."

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**4:57 PM**

**Lyoko, The Forest Sector**

Brittany and Alyssa dropped out of the sky and onto the surface of Lyoko. They were met with quite an undesirable sight… or rather, a lack thereof. Lyoko was covered in a blinding white mist!

"Well this is just _great!_" Brittany complained.

"Don't worry," ANAX said. "The active Tower is just a little ways in front of you."

"Any monsters in sight?" Alyssa asked.

"No idea," he replied. "My scanner is jammed."

"Well that's unfortunate."

Suddenly, with the flapping of wings and a blur of movement, a hornet flashed by and knocked them both down. They quickly jumped up, ready to fight, but it had vanished.

"Rrgh! We'll never make it to the Tower at this rate!" Brittany exclaimed.

"And we'll have to hurry," ANAX added. "I can't raise Sean or Tennent on their cell phones, and they are unmoving in the woods, it appears. They may have fallen unconscious."

"As if we didn't have enough problems," Alyssa said dryly.

The two girls slowly made their way through the thick smog. Gradually, they were joined by several of ANAX's monsters.

Two Krabs appeared. They opened fire and caught the group by surprise. Alyssa took a shot in the shoulder and a Wolf leapt in to cover her. From the shelter of its flank, she fired an Energy Sphere and destroyed one of the Krabs.

In the meantime, Brittany deflected a barrage of laser bolts with both of her fans. ANAX's Klankers used the distraction to shoot down the Krab.

As soon as their enemies had fallen, they heard the sound of the Scyphozoa shrieking.

"Where is it?!" Alyssa cried. "I can't see!"

The heard the screech again, but it seemed to come from an entirely different direction.

The next time it sounded, the monster had changed positions again. Frantically, the party swiveled their heads from side to side, looking for the beast.

For a moment, everything was silent. "Do you think it's gone?" Brittany asked.

Suddenly, a dozen tentacles surrounded Alyssa and picked her up. "Aagh!" She yelled in terror before the mind control silenced her.

"Oh, no you don't," Brittany said as she gritted her teeth. She took aim and launched a fan at the tendrils holding Alyssa. The weapon struck true and the tentacles were cut clean through. The Scyphozoa's captive fell to the ground, unhurt.

"Get up!" Brittany said as she ran to her side. "We have to deactivate the Tower before more monsters arrive!"

But none did. ANAX quickly guided them to the Tower, where they shut it down.

"Ready?" ANAX asked. "Return to the Past Now!"

**So! We're back to interesting stuff now! Very cool. Sorry for the short Lyoko scene. What needed to be said was, and Lyoko wasn't really that important to this chapter. I may come and edit in a larger fight here, but with the length of the chapter as it is, I don't think it will be necessary. It certainly won't change the value of the story.**

**Alright! We have a new main character! If you want a picture of him, you'll have to read the PDF, or contact me.**

**Let's see how this plays out... ready for a rough ride?**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Monday, October 1****st****, 2057 AD**

**7:36 AM**

**Sammy's Dorm**

Hawk stepped into my room again. I let things transpire as if this was the first time they were happening. Despite this, the dialog was different. He still said the same things, but he paused longer in between sentences, often staring at me.

The day passed without incident. After dinner, the six of us walked back to our dorms. Finally, I had to ask him. "Is something wrong?"

"No," he answered quickly. "I'm not sure why, but it seems… it seems like I've met you guys before. I can't describe it."

We exchanged glances. This was unexpected.

"Well that sure is weird!" Tennent said in a light tone.

"You said it. I know that I couldn't have met you before."

* * *

><p>The next morning, I woke up before Hawk did. I wasn't surprised; the cot he was sleeping was probably not the most comfortable. The staff was going to bring in a bed for him this afternoon.<p>

Knowing that we had school soon, I shook him awake. His eyes slowly opened, and he looked at me blearily. Several seconds passed before I saw the recognition.

"Good morning!" I said. "Time to get up!"

He rubbed his eyes and yawned in protest, "But I don't wanna…"

I showed him to the washroom and gave him a brief tour of the area. He was fully awake by the end of this. We cleaned up and got ready for the day. This didn't take long.

By 7:00 in the morning, we were on our way to the cafeteria.

"Y'know," Hawk said as we walked. "I had the strangest dream last night. You and I were trapped in the library for some reason. I can't really remember why, but it was frightening."

I almost tripped. Despite the return in time, Hawk's memories, however vague, had survived. _The real question is why…_

"Well, dreams are always confusing like that," I said. "I've had some pretty strange ones myself."

**Tuesday, October 2****nd****, 2057 AD**

**3:45 PM**

**The Park**

"We can't keep hiding from him like this," Brittany said. "It's not going to last for very long."

And there we were, in another secret meeting. Of course, it wasn't as if these meetings were uncommon, we were used to being stealthy. However we weren't used to hiding from a dorm-mate.

"I don't like it any more than you do," I told her. "Perhaps a solution will present itself.

"In the mean-time, I called you here for a reason. Hawk has retained his memories from yesterday's attack."

"What?" Sean asked. "Completely?"

"No," I quickly corrected. "He had a dream about being stuck in the library with me. Plus, earlier he said that it seemed as if he had already met us, which he had."

"How come he remembers when everyone else forgets?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't have an answer for that," I said. "But I found something interesting in Jeremy's diary. We sort of skimmed over parts like this in our first read-through. It seems that William Dunbar had a dream of a past attack that he was involved in before he was recruited into the Lyoko Warriors. If Hawk truly is descended of William, then it would be slightly less baffling that he has these memories, even if I don't have an explanation as to how he could remember."

"But can't you check that?" Tennent asked. "The SuperComputer gives you access to all kinds of government networks, right?"

"Huh. You're right; I can hack into a database and find birth records. It would be pretty simple."

"Then we should," Brittany said. "If he's William's descendant, then maybe we should just tell him about Lyoko."

"I disagree," Sean chimed in. "I don't think we should let it influence our decision. Genes aren't everything."

"I'm with Sean," I said. "Just because he's William's grandson doesn't mean he's cut out to be a Lyoko Warrior."

**Wednesday, October 3****rd****, 2057 AD**

**12:48 AM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

Midnight had come and gone, and Hawk's breathing had been steady for some time now. I decided that it was safe to get out of bed and move about.

I made it to the computer without disturbing my sleeping roommate. I slipped on a headset so ANAX could speak with me and booted up some security codecs and environments.

"How are you?" ANAX asked.

_I'm OK, given the circumstances, _I typed out into my chat box.

"Ready to hack a government server?"

_You bet._

It was simpler than I'd like to admit. In any event, the information was very simple to find. William the Lyoko Warrior was identified by his graduating school, and I could view all of his offspring from there. Sure enough, an Aaron Dunbar was on the list. I opened the file, and was able to find a recent picture. It was definitely Hawk.

**Thursday, October 11****th****, 2057 AD**

**4:25 PM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

More than a week had passed since Hawk had come into our lives. We got along well, despite hiding secrets everywhere. But soon, everything was about to change.

This afternoon, I was working on the virtual submarine, and all was going well. Hawk was out somewhere – I wasn't sure where, and at the time, I didn't think it was significant.

I worked for a few hours, but soon I hit a wall in development. Nothing more could be done from the computer in my room; I needed the SuperComputer. I tossed up a quick security lock on the program so no one would see it running in the background and left the room.

**Thursday, October 11****th****, 2057 AD**

**6:12 PM**

**Boys' Floor Dormitory Hallway**

Hawk strolled down the hall, returning from an afternoon of research in the library. He had adjusted well to Kadic life in the short time he had been at the school and was beginning to enjoy the quiet life.

He walked into his dorm and found it unoccupied. _Hmm…_ He though. _I wonder where Sammy is…_

He only lingered for a few moments before opening the computer on the desk. He told himself that it was OK, because this time, he wasn't going to change anything, he just wanted to look at what was running.

His efforts were quickly frustrated. There was only one program running, and the majority of the computer's power was devoted to it. But he couldn't open it. The application had some sort of firewall on it.

_Aha! _Hawk thought triumphantly. _I think I can actually use this._

He withdrew a small memory chip from his pocket and inserted into the machine. Booting up the only program on disc, he waited. A minute passed until it launched. Obviously this wasn't the highest quality piece of software.

Nonetheless, Hawk continued. There was still a chance that it could work.

_Alright, if we drag this here, direct action here… I think I need to connect the program to the firewall itself, not the actual program – no, no; it's definitely the firewall itself. But first I have to find it…_

Despite the complications of a shoddy program, Hawk managed to fit the pieces together. He ran the main routine and the hidden program appeared on the desktop. He smiled in his victory, but the smile quickly faded as he looked at what was on the screen.

_This can't be right._

He was looking at a 3D model of a Sci-Fi ship of sorts. He had seen it before. The ship wasn't the only familiar thing; the rotating eye remained in the corner of the window. _Sammy couldn't be… No, that's impossible; it was just a story anyway._

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming down the hall. In panic, he froze. _What do I do?! _

The steps faded as the person walked past his door. Hawk sighed in relief. He knew that he couldn't risk staying any longer; Sammy could come back at any time. He closed his hack program and erased all evidence of his intrusion. Well, to the best of his ability.

He tried playing some games on his laptop to take his mind off of what he had seen, but it was impossible. He put his games away and sat down to think. _Maybe I can somehow ask Sammy about this. But how would I do it without admitting that I broke into his personal files?_

The minutes ticked by slowly as he mulled over these thoughts. Then he remembered the nature of the symbol that he had seen. Perhaps Sammy would believe that there had been a brief glitch that allowed the symbol to be seen on his computer.

_Yeah, _Hawk thought. _That actually might work…_

He grabbed a piece of paper and sketched the eye. And then he waited for Sammy to come back. While he waited, he practiced what he would say. Over and over again.

The time for dinner came and went. At 30 minutes past the hour, Hawk gave up waiting and went to eat. At the moment, his curiosity was not quite as hungry as his stomach.

In the cafeteria he met with Sean, Tennent, Alyssa, and Brittany. Nothing seemed amiss about them and conversation went as usual. As they were leaving, he was still eating, but he threw one last question at them, "Does anyone know where Sammy is? I haven't seen him since school let out."

"We haven't seen him either. I assumed he was in his dorm," Sean offered.

"I'm sure he's OK," Alyssa added.

Hawk nodded. "OK, thanks."

* * *

><p>Back in his room, Hawk was still waiting at 9:00. Official bedtime was coming up and Sammy still wasn't back. This was unlike any behavior he had exhibited in the time Hawk had known him.<p>

Giving up, Hawk prepared for sleep. He was just ready to flick the lights out when Sammy opened the door.

"Hey, Hawk," he greeted him casually, as if nothing was wrong.

"Where were you today?" Hawk demanded without preamble.

"I was studying. I'm taking a higher-level math course online."

Hawk narrowed his eyes. This seemed unlikely. Why was tonight the first time he was mentioning it? It didn't make sense.

"Hmm…" Hawk said. "Anyway, I've been looking for you. I saw something strange on your computer screen and I was wondering if you could tell me what it was."

"You browsed my computer without my permission?" Sammy seemed shocked.

"No, no," Hawk hastily amended. "It flashed up on the screen for a moment. It was just the symbol; the rest of the screen was black."

"Can you describe the symbol to me?"

"I've got a drawing right here," Hawk said as he handed Sammy the paper.

He took the paper, and when he saw the drawing, he dropped his head down so that Hawk couldn't see his eyes. "Never seen it before," Sammy said.

_Ok, _Hawk thought. _He's got to be lying._

_And… woah, that's weird. Is there light coming out of eyes?_

Hawk shook his head and the "light" disappeared. Perhaps it was just the way the light fell on his face. In any event, Hawk knew he was lying about not having seen the symbol, and that was more important.

"I'll look into my computer and see if I can find anything. I'd hate to find a virus on it."

"Ok," Hawk said. "Just thought you might want to know. I'm gonna go to bed now."

Sammy just nodded.

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**6:30 AM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

"Ugh," I moaned as the alarm went off, jolting me from my precious sleep." I'd stayed up far too late last night trying to find what Hawk had done. ANAX finally tracked it down; he hadn't modified anything, which was good. We also came up with an excuse to give to Hawk about how he had seen the symbol – even though we knew he was lying about it just popping up on the desktop.

Though we had averted this trouble, Hawk was becoming more and more suspicious. He didn't seem to buy my story that Tennent had gotten a small virus installed on the computer by accident.

After my pseudo-explanation, we didn't talk for the rest of the morning. At breakfast, I managed to fill in the gang without alerting Hawk.

Everything seemed to go well until English class, which came just after lunch.

Mrs. Thompson was instructing us on verb tenses in the convoluted language that was called English. She stopped talked for a moment and asked us for an example of an exception to a pronunciation. Tyce raised his hand to answer, and she fixed her gaze upon him. "Tyce!" She said in a raised voice. "What have I told you about wearing that silly cape in my class room?!"

Tyce grinned. "Sorry, ma'am," he said as he lowered his hand.

Before Mrs. Thompson could continue, we hear it. A loud *thump!* sounded from across the grounds. The classroom was silent until the thump was heard again, this time louder. Whispers began to spread through the assembly and Mrs. Thompson clapped her hands for order.

When the noise hit our eardrums for the third time, students began to get out of their seats to look through windows.

And that's when my laptop alarm went off. Hawk watched me as I opened it up and saw the activated Tower alert.

Sean noticed as well and walked over to me. "Do we have a problem?" He discreetly asked.

"Yes. But we have no idea what's going on this time."

"I have a feeling that we're about to find out."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Let's beat it."

"Settle down everyone!" Mrs. Thompson demanded. For a moment, it seemed like the students would comply. Then a window broke. So much for that.

"Please!" Our teacher begged. "Calm down. I'm sure nothing serious has happened."

Finally, the class quieted. Every so often, a small boom could still be heard.

"I'm going to call the Headmaster." Mrs. Thompson informed us.

But she never had the chance. "Look!" Rachel screamed as she pointed at the window. Kids crowded around the windows and I couldn't see what was going on. Moments later, a gap cleared and I was able to get a view of the monstrosity. I gasped.

XANA had animated trees before, but never anything like this. The creature was nearly indescribable. Tree trunks and limbs made up a large portion of the creatures main body. It had two arms that seemed to be made of litter and refuse, and it's legs looked like a mix of branches and fence chain. It had no distinct head or face. And of course, this thing was on the move.

"C'mon!" Tennent called. "We need to go!"

The four of us sprinted out of the classroom. Alyssa dialed Brittany's number as we ran.

"Ok!" Sean shouted. "You and the girls head to Lyoko. Tennent and I will keep this thing away from the school!"

I nodded and we split up, Sean and Tennent heading towards the monster and the rest of us back to the gym. We could have cut through the Park to get to the Factory, but that would put us too close to the tree-monster for comfort.

Alyssa and I slowed our pace a bit so that Brittany could eventually catch up.

"You told her which way we're going, right?" I asked Alyssa.

"Of course!"

"Just checking, just checking…"

Brittany met us in the sewers; we didn't waste more time than it took for a brief explanation.

"Go ahead straight to the Scanners," ANAX's voice sounded in the elevator. "I'll transfer you."

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:26 PM**

**Outside the High school Building.**

As soon as XANA's monster spotted Tennent and Sean it began pursuing them. Caught up in the chase, they didn't realize that they had a follower.

They led the monster into the forest, keeping it away from school buildings. The beast was bulky, and at least 10 feet tall. However, the trees hardly hindered it. Most of them were simply knocked out of the way.

One such tree crashed right beside Tennent and he jumped in surprise. It was gaining on them!

"We can't keep running!" Tennent said. "We have to do something."

Sean looked around at all the trees as they ran. "I think I have an idea."

Following his eyes, Tennent caught on. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"No time! GO!"

Together, the two of them jumped opposite directions into the trees. They quickly climbed up a few branches and leaped down to hit the monster's midsection. Sean hit first and it staggered backwards, and collapsed with a thunderous crash when Tennent collided a second later. It tried to get up, but it didn't make it all the way and fell back down with another thump.

"Ha!" Tennent exclaimed. "Too easy!"

"Great teamwork!" Sean said as they high-fived.

But then they noticed movement behind their foe. Had XANA created more of them? They watched what was left of the bushes rustle for a moment and they held their breaths. A moment later, Hawk stepped into the clearing created by XANA's creature.

"Ok…" he said as he approached them. "What _was _that?"

For a few seconds, they just stood there, silent.

"It looks like we may have some explaining to do," Sean said.

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:35 PM**

**Lyoko, Desert Sector**

The instant we dropped out of the sky we were knocked off our feet by laser blasters.

A few dozen Droids had already engaged XANA's forces and moved to cover our position. We temporarily retreated behind a large rock.

"How come you didn't warn us that so many monsters were already here?" Brittany asked. "I didn't know," he answered. "He materialized them just as the Scanners started up."

"How many are there?" I asked.

"By current count, 25."

"Ooh," I complained. "That's a lot."

"Watch out!" ANAX exclaimed suddenly.

We had but an instant to prepare ourselves. A Slyther launched itself from the top of the rock we were hiding behind and nearly crushed us.

I used my Lyoko Power to leap up at it, but it swatted me away with a massive claw. I hit the ground hard.

"20 Life Points down, Sammy," ANAX warned.

Together we battled the monster. For some reason, we couldn't seem to get on top of it. Brittany and I attacked it head-on to try and distract it. It took the bait and swiped at us.

Alyssa stood back a little ways and focused her energy on the ground around the Slyther. The color drained out from it and the virtual structure disappeared. The monster fell through the newly created gap with a shriek of protest.

"Great job!" Brittany said.

An explosion from a MegaTank laser knocked us to the ground. We weren't safe yet! Alyssa closed the hold in the ground and we returned to our rock.

"Ok, we've all got more than half of our Life Points left, so we need to push that advantage while we have it," I said. "We can charge on 3."

Neither disagreed, so I began counting. "1… 2…"

The LI beeped at me. Incoming call from Sean.

Frustrated, I accepted that call. "What is it?!" I demanded irritably.

"How's that Tower coming? We're not doing so well over here!"

"We're pinned down at the moment. We're gonna try a rush to break through. If we fail, we might need to trade places."

"Got it!" Sean said. "Good luck."

I looked at my friends and said, "3!"

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:32 PM**

**The Park**

A few minutes earlier, Sean and Tennent stood facing Hawk in the woods. Sean opened his mouth to begin an explanation when suddenly the ground shook as the hybrid monster leaped up from the ground. It immediately identified the two boys and began chasing them.

"Run!" Tennent yelled to Hawk.

Instead of running away, as Tennent had intended, Hawk ran towards them. The beast was now pursuing all three of them.

"You idiot!" Sean exclaimed. "What are you thinking?"

"You see that symbol that the tree branches make in the middle?" Hawk heaved as he ran.

"Of course we – yikes!" The monster's arm crashed down dangerously close to Sean's legs.

"I recognize that symbol!" Hawk said.

This wasn't terribly surprising to Sean or Tennent.

"I don't know how it's possible, but somehow, this is XANA's doing!" Hawk proclaimed.

_This _surprised them. So much that Tennent lost his concentration and tripped over a root.

"Aagh!" He screamed as the tree monster picked him up.

"Let go of him!" Sean cried as he jumped for the monster's fist.

It didn't release Tennent, but the added weight was enough to slow it down.

Hawk made a snap decision and threw himself – much more awkwardly than the Lyoko Warriors – onto the monster's arm. He pulled himself up and began ripping off pieces of garbage and tree limbs. A static field held the pieces together, but this combined with the weight of Sean and Tennent was too much. Its grip loosened enough for Tennent to slip through.

"Let's go!" Tennent yelled and they all jumped off.

When they had put some distance between them and the monster, Sean complimented Hawk. He didn't reply.

Sean pulled out his phone to call Sammy. When they got done talking, he announced, "We're headed for the Factory. This guy won't be able to follow us down the man-hole."

"Sounds good to me," Tennent said.

"Wait, the Factory as in _the _Factory?"

"Sorry, no time for questions," Sean replied. "We need to save our breath so we can run."

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:38 PM**

**Lyoko, Desert Sector**

The three of us charged into the flurry of dust and laser. XANA had chosen his playing field well. The Tower was on an upward sloping, narrow pathway. It wouldn't be easy to break through.

A Blok came into my vision and I slashed it clean through as I ran by. I kept going, but a MegaTank blast stopped me dead in my tracks. I fell backwards as the world around me faded.

* * *

><p>"We just lost Sammy," ANAX announced. Brittany and Alyssa had both taken hits and their forward attack was thwarted. They couldn't gain any more ground against the barrage of lasers they faced.<p>

Sky, ANAX's only remaining Droid thundered over to them. "It appears we're in a bit of jam," he said.

"Yeah, no kidding," Alyssa agreed. "What are we going to do now?"

"I think that I may have an idea," Sammy said over the speaker. "But we need to get Sean here. He's on his way."

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:40 PM**

**The Park**

The guys finally arrived at the manhole cover in the park. "Should we really bring Hawk?" Sean asked. "There's no time!" Tennent said. "And we can't just leave him."

They quickly removed the cover and descended into the darkness of the sewer. Their enemy tried to pluck them out, but he failed. He did not make another attempt.

"C'mon, we really have to hurry, now," Tennent said. "I'm sure it's headed straight back to the school."

Unable to ride their skateboards because of Hawk, they were forced to run some more. Even the Lyoko Warriors were tired by this point, but they had to keep moving.

Eventually, they arrived and descended through the elevator. Hawk looked at everything in awe.

The door opened and Sammy spun around in his chair. "Sean, I need you –" His orange eyes widened as he saw whom they had with him. "Hawk?" He shook his head. "No time, Sean, get to Lyoko as fast as possible. Tennent, I'll need you to be ready as back-up."

Hawk and Tennent stepped out of the elevator and Sean descended another level. "What's the plan, Einstein?" Tennent asked.

"We're going to perform a cloaked virtualization. With his focus on the battle and a masked signal on the virtualization, XANA may not realize that Sean is on Lyoko. Then he can use his stealth ability to slip through their defenses."

"I hope it works," Tennent said.

"Ha. So do I."

Sammy typed away on the keyboard and spoke into his microphone, "Are you ready, ANAX?"

"Whenever you are," They heard his reply.

Sean had already stepped into the Scanner, so the began the process.

This time, Sammy did not announce the transfer protocols as he went through them. They didn't know what XANA could and couldn't hear.

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:48 PM**

**Lyoko, Desert Sector**

Sean activated his Super Stealth the moment he dropped onto Lyoko. He looked around. _I can see the lasers from here! _He thought to himself. _It's a wonder Brittany and Alyssa have held out for so long._

The OverLoad appeared beside him and he took a seat. The vehicle shimmered for a few seconds before becoming invisible with its driver. _Nice! _He avoided speaking aloud. Having heard Sammy's explanation, he didn't want to risk blowing his cover by giving XANA another signal to track.

Being the fastest vehicle, the OverLoad covered the distance to the battle very quickly. He flew over just in time to see Alyssa devirtualized trying to take out a Krab.

He continued flying. He thought something seemed weird. _The laser blasts! _He realized. _They've stopped!_

In that moment, red light began streaking all around him.

"Don't let him get away!" a monster called out.

A laser hit the underside of his bike and the cloak faltered. He was quickly hit with another shot and began to lose altitude. He crashed to the ground behind enemy lines.

At least 6 varying monsters stood behind him, firing constantly. He took a hit to the arm, and then the back, which knocked him down.

"Go, go, go!" He heard someone's voice coming from the Factory. He couldn't identify it.

He dragged himself off the ground and sprinted the final few feet to the Tower. He slipped inside just before a MegaTank fired a shot at where he was less than a second ago. The Tower rocked from the blast, but Sean was relieved. He had done it.

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:52 PM**

**Outside the High school Building**

"It's back, it's back!" Autumn squealed. "Run!"

XANA's monster had just broken through the tree line and into the schoolyard. It lumbered across the clearing, covering the distance quickly. It raised its arm to try and smash some nearby students, but froze suddenly.

The kids looked up at the monster, bewildered. With no warning, the pieces of trash and trees simply fell apart and crashed to the ground. It took a moment for it to sink in. Once it did, the students began cheering. They were saved! Some invisible force had defeated this monster. They didn't understand, but it didn't really matter to them.

**Friday, October 12****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:55 PM**

**The Lab**

Hawk and the Lyoko Warriors sat down in the dimly lit Laboratory.

For a whole minute, no one said a word. Hawk opened up.

"I just can't believe it. I thought they were just stories."

"What stories?" I asked.

"When I was younger, my grandpa told me tales of a virtual world controlled by a powerful AI named XANA. XANA had power in the real world and was able to possess people and objects. He was evil.

"In the end, six heroes called the 'Lyoko Warriors' defeated XANA. I know they went through a lot to get there; I don't remember all the details, but the good guys won that battle.

"He drew pictures for me, like the eye of XANA and their virtual ship, the Skid, or something like that. I loved hearing those stories. I asked him to tell them to me all the time. But I never imagined that…" he trailed off, unable to finish.

"You're grandfather was William Dunbar, wasn't he?" I asked, even though I knew the answer.

"Yes," Hawk was surprised. "How did you know?"

"Your grandfather was once a Lyoko Warrior."

* * *

><p>Hours passed. Each of us took turns retelling parts of the story, and even Hawk would jump in as memories came back to him. ANAX helped us with some more technical aspects of our story. Before the end of the day, Hawk had been educated like a real Lyoko Warrior.<p>

I took in a deep breath and moved to a new area. "You know what possessing this knowledge means, don't you?" I asked him seriously. "You can't tell anyone, and you're either with us or against us."

"Sammy!" Alyssa hissed at what she probably thought was an over serious tone.

"I'm dead serious," I continued. "You can't keep this knowledge and just go about your business."

For a minute, Hawk looked very scared.

"We have the technology to erase your memory. It'll be like this never happened. In fact, we've done it before."

"Of course," Hawk said. "A Return to the Past." He looked doubtful.

"Or you can join us," I offered. "With another Lyoko Warrior, we'll be even stronger. But be warned, it's not going to be easy."

Hawk thought for what seemed like a very long time. "When you guys erased my memory before, I didn't forget everything. I had that dream. I couldn't live like that. Without my memory of this, I'd still be suspicious of you guys and try to discover all of this again. It would never work.

"And besides, I'm third generation, just like you guys. This was something I was born to do."

"Then follow me," I said solemnly.

"The six of us climbed down the ladder and into the Scanner room.

"Step inside," I gestured to the nearest Scanner.

Hawk hesitated for only a brief second before getting in.

"Scanner, Hawk," ANAX said over the speaker.

The doors closed and the machine began to hum. Shortly thereafter, it opened again, and there he was, slouched on the side of the Scanner.

"How do you feel?" Alyssa asked.

He looked up at us, grinned, and said, "Ready to fight XANA and his monsters."

We had a new Lyoko Warrior.

**Author's Notes: There you have it! In the next Chapter, we'll be seeing some character development for Hawk. You'll get to see his Lyoko form in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 is going to be extra special- I can't say any more. =)**

**I'll try to include a "Bonus Content" chapter on Hawk. Given the symbolism of the other characters, his existence needs some explaining.**

**Lastly... Don't expect a repeat of William with Hawk. After all, XANA's goals are different now, and hopefully you've seen that Hawk doesn't mirror William's personality. HOWEVER, you will see some similarities. Not sure what my point here is... I think it's "don't be disappointed if you don't find something completely different than the original Code Lyoko in the next two chapters."**

**I expect that they shall be fun. With College back full force, I can't make a good estimate for an ETA of Chapter 9. I'll do my best.**

**Until next time...**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**Saturday, October 13****th****, 2057 AD**

**12:32 PM**

**The Schoolyard**

"No, no, no," Kristen said. "Stop, stop, stop, you're doing it all wrong!"

Hawk looked up from the piece of machinery. "What do you mean?"

"The speed shift needs to be on _that _side," she said, pointing to the structure. "Are you even looking at the designs?"

"Yes, I am," Hawk said, "but it doesn't make sense for the lever to be there. It should be on the same side of the engine that it modulates. Otherwise we have a much higher risk of a structural breakdown."

Kristen was working on her newest invention. "Airplane 2.0." She had designed it to improve on her last project, and Hawk had offered to help her build it. So far, he'd made more designs than actual construction.

"But that means I have to use my _left _hand to change the propeller speed," she complained.

"Sorry," Hawk said unsympathetically. "With our limited resources, we have to adapt to the engine, otherwise the machine won't be stable enough."

A few more hours passed, and Kristen completed the body, while Hawk made some internal connections. By this point, they were ready for a test run.

Kristen hopped into the seat and started the motor. Grudgingly, she used her left hand to adjust the engine speed.

"This runs pretty smoothly!" She shouted over the noise.

"Try steering the wheels!" Hawk encouraged.

She took a moment to locate the control. She found it on her right side and experimented with the control stick. She gave Hawk a thumbs up.

There wasn't much left to test. Soon she was finished and cut the power. "I have to hand it to you, it feels more natural to have the steering controls on the right. Pretty good idea."

"Hey," Hawk said with a grin, "it's what I do."

**Sunday, October 14****th****, 2057 AD**

**7:24 PM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

Hawk and Kristen had finally managed to get the airplane fully functional on the ground. It wasn't capable of flight, but worked like a go-cart. There was still a ways to go before a takeoff could be attempted.

Tired from his work, Hawk flopped onto his bed and pulled out his phone to browse the Internet.

Sammy sat at the computer, typing away. The two did not exchange words for a while.

"This feels strange," Hawk said. "Like a dream."

"Hm?" Sammy said, emerging halfway from his work.

"Being a Lyoko Warrior. Part of me feels normal, but I also feel like I'm part some legend now. I don't know about you guys, but when I was little, the Lyoko Warriors were my heroes. And now all of a sudden I'm one of them. I guess I just have a hard time taking it all in."

"You'll get used to it pretty quick," Sammy said. "You'll have to. We were lucky, XANA's weakness afforded us some mistakes, but you won't have that opportunity."

Hawk didn't reply, and after a minute, Sammy added, "I'm not trying to scare you, just prepare you. We'll help you."

Hawk pulled up a second chair and sat down beside Sammy to look at the computer screen. "What are you working on?"

"It's a virtual submarine. We'll need it to fight XANA."

"Why?"

"Remember how XANA created those Replikas and the first Lyoko Warriors destroyed them?"

Hawk nodded. "Now I remember, they used the Skid to get there."

"Exactly. XANA's using the same tactic again, and this ship is out best chance."

"Shouldn't it be easy to rebuild since it's already been done before?"

Sammy handed him a thick stack of papers. "You'd think," he said.

"These are Jeremy and Aelita's notes. Jeremy's notes are all over the place, and I'm having some trouble making sense of them."

"What about Aelita's?" Hawk asked.

"They're much easier to understand. But they're not of much help at this point. Plus, there's another complication. The first Skid had a sort of hanger bay, or dock in Sector 5. It's gone now, and because of the way everything was programmed, Lyoko doesn't seem to like some of the old core programs. It's labeled them as foreign and won't accept it."

"How do you fix that?" Hawk asked as he flipped through the notes.

"Well I haven't yet. ANAX is working on a solution."

"I've tried using a different encoder on the core, but that hasn't helped. I'm running a complete re-working of the software now, but I'm having some issues, and it's taking a while."

"What kind of issues?" Hawk inquired.

Four windows popped up on the screen, running code.

"May I?" He gestured at the keyboard.

"Be my guest," Sammy said. He looked confused.

"I'm guessing that if you re-route this carrier code to the energy source, it would clear at least one of these up." He cautiously hit a few keys.

Suddenly code began flying up the window. It took Hawk a second to realize that ANAX was at work.

"Amazing!" ANAX said. "It works!"

"Wow, Hawk," Sammy said. "I didn't realize you were computer savvy."

"Well I'm not familiar with this programming language, but I read a lot of books and articles on the Internet. ANAX did the work here."

"True," I said. "But you could learn the language pretty quickly!"

"I guess so. But wouldn't I just get in the way?"

"Look at what you just did!" Sammy said. "Having another brain around always helps."

Sammy scooted over to make more room for Hawk at the computer.

"ANAX, keep working on that," he said excitedly. "I'll start teaching Hawk."

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Alyssa opened the door and stepped into the room. "How's it going?" She asked.

"I think we've got a new programmer!" I told her excitedly.

"Really?" She replied. "Hawk?"

"You bet!" I answered.

"Well… I don't know…" Hawk put in.

"Here," I said to Hawk. "Alyssa likes to sit in and listen to me programming. It helps to have someone to talk out to, and she's learning some basic things. She's already learned bitwise logic pretty well."

She blushed and I continued, "So I'll start teaching you the basics, and she can tell you what she thinks of you!"

Alyssa nodded and Hawk sighed in agreement.

"Then we'll start with subsystems."

**Sunday, October 14****th****, 2057 AD**

**9:47 PM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

"Oh, wow," Hawk said as he looked at the clock. "I didn't realize it was so late!"

Alyssa yawned. "I think I'm done for the night. I'm going to have to be out of here in a few minutes anyway."

"So what did you think?" I asked her.

"He seems like a natural!" She complimented him. "I don't understand all of the math, but it seems like he was able to ask the right questions to solve whatever problem you gave him."

Hawk looked down and said, "Thanks for your confidence…"

"I concur," ANAX added. "Hawk did excellently for his first night. Hopefully we can complete the virtual submarine even faster now."

"See," I said. "You do great!"

"But I'm no where near as good as you are," he protested.

"C'mon, man, I've been doing this for nearly a year! You can't make that kind of comparison!"

"Ok…" Hawk finally managed a grin. "Thanks for teaching me all that stuff! It's really incredible."

We said goodnight to Alyssa, and Hawk took a break while ANAX and I resumed our work.

**Monday, October 15****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:32 PM**

**Athletic Field**

The sharp sound of Jim's whistle jerked me out of my daydreaming. I had changed out of my camo jacket and left the bag I usually carry behind. This wasn't my first gym class, but even still, I could tell something was different about today. For one, nothing at all was set up on the field.

"I hope you all came prepared to get dirty today." Jim began immediately with "no fluff" as usual.

"Because today, we will be making another run on the obstacle course!"

A chorus of groans, moans, and other complains rose from the group of students sitting in front of him.

"Aaron – er, Hawk hasn't heard the explanation, so I'll go over it one more time."

"As with any obstacle course, the goal is to get to the end in the shortest amount of time. But this isn't any old obstacle course… no student sitting here has ever completed it, and you're given the entire class period to try and finish."

_Wonderful, _I thought sarcastically. _Even the Lyoko Warriors haven't finished it… just what I needed. *Sigh*_

"The course will test you in many areas, from climbing, to crawling and from jumping to sliding. Be sure to pay attention to any signs posted along the way. Anyone who finishes without reading the special instructions on the sign will not receive credit for finishing. Teamwork is not prohibited and will be required in some instances along the track. Are there any questions?"

_Are the video cameras on the course or something?_

I raised my hand.

"Too bad," Jim said when he noticed me. "I've given you the only instructions you need. Anything more would act as a crutch! Begin now!"

With that, Jim blew his whistle again, and everyone began drudging towards the start. Everyone except for the Lyoko Warriors, that is. They sprinted to the course, eager to prove themselves.

"What's going on?" I asked in confusion as I tried to keep up with them.

"We're going to be the first of our class to finish that obstacle course!" Tennent said excitedly.

I was slightly less enthused by the ordeal, but I would try to not let my friends down.

"Just stick with us, Hawk, and you'll be fine," Sammy said.

We ran across the athletic field and through the starting line, into the woods. Immediately, the first impediment confronted us. For a stretch of about 100 meters, thigh-high hurtles of varying lengths littered the area. I stopped for a moment in surprise and watched as the gang leaped skillfully over all of the hurtles, hardly missing a beat. I tried to keep up, but without jumping the obstacles and just going around, I lost ground quickly. I looked up and saw that they were vanishing into the trees.

"Wait for me!" I called out, struggling to increase my speed.

A moment later, they appeared, looking impatient. "Hurry up!" Sean shouted as I weaved in and out of the hurtles. "I'm trying!"

"You have to jump!" Tennent yelled.

"I can't!" he replied.

A moment later, I tried jumping one, but I didn't make it over and face-planted into the dirt.

"Wow," Tennent whispered to Sammy. "We actually found someone who's less athletic than you!"

"Cut it out," He defended their new friend. "The only reason I can scrape by is because of Lyoko. Hawk's only been scanned once, and he's never even been on Lyoko."

"Hmph."

Eventually I caught up to them, slightly worse for the wear. "C'mon, let's go!" Brittany said the moment I was through the last barrier.

We sprinted up a long hill, and at the top, we found the first instructional sign.

**No part of your body or clothing may touch the ground on this hill.**

Strong chords were strung all across the trees in the area. Sean and Tennent began climbing. "Are you kidding me?" I asked.

"You better get climbing!" Alyssa said, grabbing a branch. Sammy hoisted himself up a tree on the other side of the path and caught hold of a rope. It seemed that Jim had been kind, setting this challenge on the downhill side rather than the uphill. Nonetheless, I wasn't keen on trying it, and began to search for loopholes.

_Obviously shoes are counted as clothing, but surely I can find something around here that isn't clothing…_

Branches were strewn all across the forest floor. I gathered an armful of the largest branches and then reached for my bag, which I was disappointed to remember that it wasn't there.

I snatched some long ferns growing nearby and began tying the sticks together. When I finished I spent a second admiring my work. It was crude, but it should probably hold together for a trip down the hill.

Taking a short running start, I jumped just as the hill slanted downwards. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my friends were almost at the bottom, jumping from tree to tree.

Before I hit the ground, I slide my makeshift surfboard under my rear-end and slid down the hill, without any part of my body or clothing touching the ground.

I tumbled off of my board at the bottom just as the rest of the gang was swinging off of the last tree. They gave me some weird looks.

"What?" I asked innocently. "I didn't break the rules."

"Maybe not," Brittany said, "but Jim still may not count that… spirit of the game and all."

"Well it's not going to matter at _all _if we don't _finish the course!_" Tennent insisted. "So let's _move._"

Somewhat proud of myself for such a maneuver, I set off after them, slightly more optimistic.

I seemed like the course curved around the athletic field; I suppose this was so we would be within earshot of the end-of-class bell.

I sprinted along the path, trying to watch my step. I slammed on my breaks as I noticed that the ground fell away in front of me. "Aagh!" I cried out as I nearly tumbled off the edge.

Brittany turned around and saw me staring off the edge. "C'mon Hawk!" she yelled out.

"I'll just go around!" I answered.

"You can't," she shook her head. "The cliff doesn't end until you're outside of the course's boundaries." She paused. "Just jump, it's only a couple of meters!"

"Easy for you to say!" I retorted.

By now, all of Team Lyoko had gathered under the cliff, waiting for me to join them. They all called out their encouragement, but I still shied away.

"I can't do it!"

"Why not?" Sean demanded.

A moment of silence passed.

"I'm too scared." I admitted.

"What?" Sean asked.

"I'm scared!" I shouted back.

For a few seconds, no one did anything. I heard a bird chirping off in the distance.

"Alright," Sean said as he walked towards me. "Watch me."

He climbed up the cliff, and leaped off, jumping into a dive-roll as he landed.

"Now it's your turn," Sean said.

"Show off," Alyssa lightly slapped him before I could answer. "Hawk, we'll catch you!"

Tennent looked at her like she was crazy. I was thinking something along the same lines.

"Look," she said. "We can link our arms together, like this."

Under her direction, the five of them created a mesh with their arms. It looked like it was probably big enough to hold me.

"Ok, I think this is actually a good idea," Sammy said. "We should be able to support your weight!"

I winced. _Should. Ha._

I took a step back and then started to jump, but I stopped myself. I just couldn't do it.

"C'mon!" Tennent shouted. "Trust us!"

_Ok Hawk, _I told myself. _You can do this. If you can't trust them for something as small as this how are you ever going to trust them fighting XANA?_

So I took in a deep breath, and jumped off of the edge.

The fall seemed like an eternity and just a split second at the same time. It was an exhilarating feeling, not having anything solid beneath you… but still frightening all the same.

I landed in my friends' arms stomach first, but I didn't feel any pain. They held me up, and I hopped off.

"See?" Brittany said, looking at me. "That wasn't so hard."

I breathed in and smiled. "Maybe not." Everyone smiled back at me.

We traversed the course, going through military crawls, climbing walls, Tarzan swings, and even fording a small creek.

Jim had said that no student in this class had completed the course. I didn't get the feeling that we would actually meet that challenge today; I kept holding the group back. But still, they waited for me. I wondered why. If they left me behind, they could probably finish on their own, and I was just keeping them from their goal.

Sean jumped on top of a fallen tree. "We've only got five minutes of class left! This is as far as we've ever been. C'mon!"

My teammates seemed to catch a second wind, but not me. I was exhausted. _How do they do it?_

I stumbled through a wall of bushes and found my friends staring at a devious contraption. It was made mainly of wood, and looked rather crude in some places. A sign was posted nearby:

**To continue, you must collect five tickets from each dispenser on these contraptions. You may not damage them in any way.**

**Good luck.**

Closer inspection proved that it was not a single machine, but comprised of parts. Built off of both the trees and the ground, it had several moving parts, such as a spinning propeller, a swinging lever, a pulley system, and a dumbwaiter of some kind. There also appeared to be trip wires scattered over the ground, some kind of pressure plate, and a few buttons. It did not seem to have any kind of order or hierarchy.

"I see the first dispenser!" Tennent said, pointing to a plastic box, suspended behind a propeller.

"No way," Brittany disagreed. "We should go for this one," she gestured to one on the ground.

"We're running out of time," Sammy snapped. "We'll go for the closest one."

I couldn't keep up with them. I was too tired to think clearly.

When I reached the dispenser, they were already huddled around it.

"How do we get the tickets out?" Alyssa asked. "Nothing's working!"

I looked at the gray box for a moment. Then I squinted at the one higher up that Tennent had pointed out. I could see that a light was lit on the box, and a slip of paper was hanging from the bottom.

"Guys!" I said. "Look up there at that one. It has a light on. This one must not have power."

"Well that's fantastic," Brittany complained. "How are we supposed to turn it on? There isn't a switch or anything on the dispenser!"

"Maybe we have to trigger something else to make it turn on," I suggested.

"There!" Alyssa shouted as she pointed at a tree.

We rushed over to it and found a small red button loosely attached. Just as we pressed it, we heard the bell ringing. Class was over.

**Monday, October 15****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:22 PM**

**Athletic Field**

I kicked at the ground, still frustrated that we hadn't completed the course, despite my low expectations.

"Ok everyone, nice try!" Jim said, talking through a megaphone. "Better luck next time! Hurry up and change and get to your next class."

My friends and walked towards the locker rooms, but Jim met us on the way. "You guys came closer than ever today," he complimented us. "You'll get next time."

"Thank you, sir," Sean said.

"And Hawk," Jim said, turning to me. "Good thinking at the first challenge! But I'll have to change the sign now to make it so you can't do that," he said with a smirk.

I grinned bashfully. "It's not cheating…"

"You did great for your first time. Reminds me of a recruit from my base in Iraq… Anyway, Hawk, you've just got to have some more courage."

**Monday, October 15****th****, 2057 AD**

**7:38 PM**

**The Cafeteria**

Dinner was over, but a few students still hung around the eating area. We were among them, sitting at our usual table. The windows were dark, the room was dimmer than in the daytime. The artificial light from the ceiling provided enough glow to see by.

I picked up my glass and said, "I propose a toast, in honor of our first school day with the newest Lyoko Warrior!"

"Hear, hear," Tennent said as he picked up his glass as well.

"To friendship," Brittany said.

We clinked our glasses together and all repeated, "To friendship."

"You guys are the best," Hawk said to us. "But I have to wonder… How come you wasted your time waiting for me in the obstacle course? How come you treat me like I'm your brother? I mean, don't get me wrong, but we hardly know each other."

For a minute, no one said anything in response. Everyone was looking at me, so I supposed that I had been wordlessly elected to explain.

"Well, Hawk," I said. "When you've been through what we have in fighting XANA, anyone who is on your side becomes extremely valuable. All of a sudden, we have a new teammate that we get to teach and swap stories with.

"We waited for you in gym class because we're in this together now. We may not be a well-oiled machine just yet, but that's our goal. And we'll only get there by spending time with each other.

"And besides… How cool is it to have another person like us?!"

"Awesome!" Tennent shouted immediately.

"Fantastic," Sean added.

"Incredible," Alyssa told him.

"You couldn't know what it's like," Brittany concluded.

"But that's the thing," Hawk said hesitantly. "I'm _not _like you."

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

He didn't say anything, but looked into my eyes. He then turned and looked at Alyssa, who was next to me, and then Sean, Brittany and Tennent.

"You know very well what I mean," I said slowly.

He was right, but I wasn't going to say it. He did, though. "My eyes don't glow like yours do."

"That doesn't change anything," I said quietly.

"Yes it does," Hawk insisted. "It's the mark of what you all have been through. _Together. _I wasn't there for that."

"But that's nothing you could control," Alyssa pointed out. "The fact that you joined after that event just shows that we're strong enough as a team to resist XANA!"

"Look, man," Sean said. "Remember how Tennent and I lost our light when the Scyphozoa captured us? I thought that made us different, or inferior. I realize now that the light is just the expression of what's inside us. It doesn't change the fact that we all share one thing: Lyoko Data."

Nobody had anything else to add. Finally, Hawk said, "Thanks for the support guys. I really appreciate it." He managed a smile.

We walked back to our dorms in a comfortable silence, happy to be in each other's company.

**Author's Notes: Boy, it's been a while, hasn't it?! Hopefully I'll be getting back to regular writing. This chapter is mainly character development for Hawk, and the next chapter will have his first trip to Lyoko! After that, something super special, but I can't tell you anything more. I'm hoping the excitement will drive me to write quickly!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**9:11 AM**

**Math Classroom**

"…and this leaves us with a simple quadratic equation to solve," Mr. Songer explained. Now I enjoy math, but what we were covering was a little basic, and it was difficult to keep my mind from drifting to the Skid. We were just finding points of intersection on a second dimensional graph. The chalkboard had a nice, simple drawing with clearly labeled points. The Skid was fully 3D with moving parts, contact surfaces, and virtual engines and forces, all working together. There was almost no comparison.

Mr. Songer started another example and I thought about Brittany. At this time of day, she would be in History, actually learning something. I let out a small sigh.

The last few minutes of classes ticked slowly by, but eventually, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. I packed up my things and stood up with the rest of the class. "Don't forget to study for the quiz on Monday," Mr. Songer called out his last instructions.

I stepped aside to let Alyssa out, and I Hawk came over to me. "Wow," he said. "After working on the Skid with you and ANAX, seeing everything that goes into it, this stuff seems like child's play!"

"It _is _child's play," I told him. "Did you forget how old we are? We're only in a 9th grade level course."

"True, but isn't Kadic more advanced than other schools?"

"I guess, but it doesn't really make a difference," I said, smirking.

"Hey," Tennent cut in, "it may seem easy to _you _guys, but I can barely follow what's going on!"

"And whose fault is that?" Hawk asked him.

We stepped out into the hallway. "Probably the school's," Tennent said with a grin. "If I'm not learning the material, it must not be taught well enough!"

"Then how come I manage the assignments?" Alyssa asked?

"Um… Okay, I give up," Tennent said, tossing his hands in the air. "Maybe I should study more often."

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**9:25 AM**

**High School Building Hallway**

Brittany hurried out of her History classroom and out into the hallway. It wasn't very long trek to the main school building, only about a hundred yards, but she didn't want to be late.

On her way out, a girl that she didn't know very well crashed into here. It was Holly Stones. Hardened from her Lyoko battles, Brittany hardly reacted to the collision, but Holly slipped to the ground.

Holly wore her brown hair in a somewhat unusual fashion, with clothing choices that seemed to match. Like Brittany, she preferred purple.

"Sorry," Brittany apologized and held out her hand to help her up.

"It's okay," Holly said in a flustered tone. "I shouldn't be in such a rush.

"Hey, don't I have some classes with you?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "History for one."

Brittany winced. That was pretty awkward; they had just come from the same class and she didn't even realize it.

Holly continued, "And my next class is Math. I think we may be on the same schedule."

"Why don't we walk together?" Brittany suggested. It hadn't taken long for her to get tired of being alone in her classes, and maybe it was time that she found someone to hang out with. Part of her wasn't comfortable about reaching out to someone not in the Lyoko gang, but she figured that ill consequences were unlikely.

"O-okay," Holly accepted.

The two girls talked on the way to their next class, and the discomfort soon faded. They passed the Lyoko Warriors and Brittany gave them a wave.

"Aren't those your friends?" Holly asked.

Brittany nodded.

"It must be tough being on a different schedule."

"It's not so bad," Brittany smiled. "We still share adventures together."

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:21 PM**

**English Classroom**

School was very monotonous today. It had been almost a week since any XANA activity, and I was itching to see the results of the calculations I had started running last night in my research on the Skid.

I found it easier to concentrate in English class, because even though it's such a convoluted language, I'm more or less guaranteed to have need of it. By 9th grade, I was competent, but I could always use improvement.

After some time had passed, I noticed a sound that had been growing louder and louder, like the whistling of the wind. I hadn't paid any attention to it earlier, but now it was starting to overpower Mrs. Thompson's quiet voice.

I didn't suspect that anything was out of place just yet. Heavy winds weren't unheard of.

Mrs. Thompson continued the lecture, but as time went on, she was basically shouting to be heard over the noise.

When class was over, my friends and I took a look outside. The sound _was _the wind, blowing so hard that all the trees were bent steeply against the force.

"You don't see _that _every day," Tennent said idly.

We walked down the hall and tried to open the door to the schoolyard. By "tried," I mean we opened it, and the wind blew it back in our faces.

"I can't remember ever seeing winds this strong," Alyssa told us. "Don't you think something weird is going on?"

"Maybe," I said. But I wasn't convinced. We knew XANA could make it snow, but wind was entirely another thing. In addition, an attack like this wouldn't seem to fit in with his master plan… at least as I understood it.

"We'll know in a minute," I continued as I pulled out my laptop to check.

Hawk, Sean, Tennent, and Alyssa gathered around to watch me screen. I opened the SuperScan and it rapidly flicked through the Towers on Lyoko. The alarm began to sound and the program zeroed in on a Tower.

"Oh, that's just great," Sean complained. "Just what we needed."

"I'm still not convinced that this wind is XANA's attack," I said.

"Well we need to get to the Factory either way," Alyssa pointed out.

"Since we don't know the attack, shouldn't we leave a few of us behind to watch the school?" Tennent asked.

"Good point," I said. "Volunteers?"

"I'll stay," Tennent said.

"Me too," Alyssa added.

"Hawk, this'll be your first trip, so we don't want to leave you behind," I said. He nodded.

"I'll call Brittany," Sean pulled out his phone.

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:31 PM**

**The Schoolyard**

"Help meeeeee!" Holly screamed as she hung onto a tree branch that was being whipped about by the ferocious wind.

"I'm coming!" Brittany shouted back.

The two girls had just finished their French class and were on their way to Gym. When they left the building, the wind was bad, but it didn't seem dangerous. In the middle of the grounds, it sprung up suddenly with a force stronger than a tornado, pushing them around.

Brittany herself was clinging to a bench, but she didn't know how much longer the weight would be enough to keep her from flying out with the wind. The tree that Holly was hanging onto was mainly decorous. It didn't have very deep roots. Even as Brittany was thinking this, the tree gave a great lurch, as if it would break.

"Hurry!" Holly shouted.

Keeping her eyes on the tree, Brittany gathered her focus and let go of the bench. She used the momentum of the wind and pushed off of the ground so she could grab the tree. The weight she added caused the tree to visibly weaken. "Uh-oh," she muttered.

Slowly, she inched her way up the trunk. "Grab my hand!" She called out to Holly when she was close enough. Holly reached out and swatted at Brittany's hand. After a few tries, she latched on.

"Gotcha!" Brittany yelled. "Now we have to-" A sudden burst of wind sprung up and blew her hair in her face. Brittany heard a squeal as Holly was ripped from her grasp. "Holly!" She screamed.

Her body was nearly sideways, but she looked "down" to see Holly holding on to her ankle. "Don't let go!" Brittany ordered.

In the same manner that she had ascended the tree, they scaled down. "The wind isn't so bad this close to the ground!" She told Holly. Here, gravity actually pulled stronger than the wind, and they rested in the soil while Brittany kept a death grip on the tree's trunk.

It was calm enough now that she felt the vibrations from her cellphone ringing. Some part of her had known that this couldn't be a natural occurrence and that XANA had to be behind it, but it wasn't until now that she was really able to think clearly about it.

"We need to get inside!" Brittany shouted out.

"But how?!" Holly asked.

_Good question_

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:43 PM**

**The Lab**

"Brittany's _still_ not answering," Sean said worriedly.

"She's in a bit of a situation," ANAX told him. "I've located her by her cellphone; she's in the middle of the school campus, about 32.4 meters from the nearest building."

"We've got to go and help her!" Sean exclaimed.

"We wouldn't have time," I protested. "The fastest way is to deactivate the Tower, and we can't risk going in with any fewer Warriors, especially not with this being Hawk's first trip."

"I'll tell Tennent and Alyssa about Brittany," ANAX said to us. Sean managed to calm down a bit. "Thanks," he said.

"Now get down to the Scanners. I'll transfer you."

Hawk, Sean, and I turned around and walked into the elevator. I hit the down button and the door closed.

"Ready?" Sean asked Hawk as we descended.

He didn't answer. I looked him over and realized that he was shaking.

"I'll be fine," he said at last, gulping.

"Don't worry," I told him. "You're atoms are blown apart in an instant. You hardly feel a thing."

"Not helping," he immediately replied.

The elevator stopped and the door opened.

"Ready or not, it's time to go!" Sean said as he jumped out and ran into a Scanner. Hawk and I took up our positions as well."

"Transfer, Sean… Transfer, Sammy… Transfer, Hawk," ANAX announced.

"Scanner, Sean… Scanner, Sammy… Scanner, Hawk," the doors closed and I caught a glimpse of Hawk closing his eyes tightly.

The process started and I relaxed my body. The air twisted around me and I lost consciousness before I heard ANAX's final announcement.

"Virtualization!"

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:45 PM**

**Main School Building**

Alyssa and Tennent huddled together with the rest of the students in the building. Due to "inclement weather" school had been cancelled. Delmas's voice could be heard over the speakers constantly. The students in the Science and High school building were accounted for, as well as the staff in the Admin building. Only two students were missing: Brittany and Holly Stones.

"We have to go out and find Brittany!" Tennent argued.

"But we have no idea where she is," Alyssa countered. We might get ourselves blown away!"

"Well then what do you suggest we do?" Tennent demanded.

"We wait," As she was saying that, her phone rang. She answered it to find ANAX on the other line.

"Alyssa," ANAX greeted her.

"What do you have for us?" she replied. Tennent rolled his eyes.

"I've confirmed that the wind is XANA's attack. He's linked a specter in series to connect to an experimental facility. He is using some prototype technology to control pressure drops and rises and artificially create wind.

"Also, Brittany is in trouble. I can give you her location by her cellphone…"

* * *

><p>After grabbing the longest rope they could find in the utility closet, Tennent and Alyssa snuck off to the north exit. "ANAX said they'd be right around the corner," Alyssa informed Tennent. "We've got enough rope, right?"<p>

"It's all we've got," he answered. "It'll _have _to be enough."

I tied the rope securely to the lockers and turned to Alyssa. "I need you to make sure that the rope doesn't slip. I may also need you to help pull us back in. Can you do that?"

She nodded confidently. "Good luck!" she said.

Tennent opened the door and braced himself against the blasting gusts. Feeding the rope out carefully, he worked his way to the center of the Schoolyard. He quickly sighted two figures clinging to a tree. He tried yelling to them, but the wind was just too loud and they couldn't here him.

He looked down at what rope remained and realized with a bolt of fear that there might not be enough.

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**1:57 PM**

**The Mountain Sector**

I landed solidly onto the purple ground and noticed that Hawk had just made the best first landing of all of us, despite his nerves. In our defense, he had much more warning than we did, though.

Hawk stood there for a moment, flexing his fingers, and moving various joints.

"This is incredible!" he exclaimed after a moment.

Hawk was dressed in a mostly brown, hybrid-type armor. A feather-like pattern of darker brown rippled across his suit. Some sort of pack clung to his back, and I noticed his hairstyle had been accentuated so his fluffy bangs resembled wings even more clearly.

He admired himself and after a moment said, "I think I look pretty good!"

"What about weapons?" Sean inquired.

"I don't seem to have any," Hawk said. "But I'm sure I do somewhere…"

"Check the pack on your back," I suggested.

He reached behind his head and pulled out a long, silver staff, Mary Poppins style. "Cool! A bō staff!" he exclaimed as he began spinning it around.

"Now let's get moving," Sean said. The Tower was already in sight.

"Hold on a second!" I snapped my fingers. "Sean, what do you notice about Hawk?"

"He's on Lyoko, so what?"

"Seriously, look at him," I insisted. Hawk was clearly confused.

Suddenly, Sean gasped. "His eyes! His eyes are glowing!"

"I thought so!" I said aloud.

"What are you guys talking about?" Hawk asked.

"Your eyes!" I said again. "They're glowing like mine and Sean's are!"

"How can this be?" Sean asked.

"I'm not sure…" ANAX replied vaguely. "I'll look into it."

Something seemed weird about ANAX's answer. I couldn't put my finger on it, but his tone was… different.

"Awesome," Sean said. "Now can we _please_ deactivate this Tower? Our friends are in danger, need I remind you?"

"Right," I said, shaking my head and clearing my thoughts. "Let's move."

We skipped our vehicles this time and sprinted straight for the Tower. "You better get used to handling your body fast," I said to Hawk, or you'll be back at the Factory faster than you intended."

He didn't respond verbally, but he nodded.

As we got closer, two Tarantulas crept out from behind the Tower, setting up a defense.

"Is that all XANA has for us today?" Sean complained. "He's really been such a pansy lately… blowing wind at us and sending us only two old monsters!"

I didn't like it. I immediately suspected a trap, but I couldn't think of anything beyond the obvious of the Scyphozoa capturing me. But Sean was right; XANA's behavior over the past hour had been really wimpy. Perhaps he was just playing with us.

"Ok, Hawk, these are Tarantulas. They can be dangerous to someone who doesn't know what they're doing. Watch how Sean handles one, and we'll let you take the other," I said.

The Tarantulas opened fire the second I finished speaking we scattered to avoid the lasers. Hawk had a decent reaction speed.

Sean ignited his whip and shot forwards, snapping it at the monsters' feet.

Still dodging the lasers, Hawk bolted across the Tarantula's broadside, a stupid move. A bolt hit him and he collapsed to the ground.

I rushed toward him and the Tarantulas stopped firing. Confused, I stopped in my tracks as well. The monsters seemed to stare at Hawk for a moment. Sean used this to his advantage and wound the laser in his whip around a Tarantula's snout, splitting its weak point.

The remaining Tarantula opened fire on Sean, removing its focus from Hawk. Things were getting weirder, and I didn't like it.

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:03 PM**

**The Schoolyard**

"BRITTANY!" Tennent yelled with all of his might. He had struggled towards the girls for several minutes. The wind was blowing him towards them, but at a dangerously fast rate, which meant he had to regulate his speed. Crosscurrents interfered as well, making it difficult to maintain balance.

Brittany, who had had her eyes closed and face in the dirt, finally looked up and saw him, just about six feet away.

Tennent gestured to the rope, showing that it was all out. Brittany nodded and summoned the last of her strength. She lifted herself and Holly against the wind so that they were pinned up against the tree. Tennent stretched as far as he could, shortening the distance between them.

Working together now, Holly and Brittany prepared to jump. Then their moment came. For a brief second, the wind lapsed as several currents canceled each other out. It wasn't much of a break, but it was enough that when the pushed off with their legs, Tennent grabbed them and pulled them into reach of the rope.

"Thanks for the rescue!" Brittany shouted. "Great timing!"

"The pleasure is mine!" Tennent yelled back. Holly was too stunned to say anything.

Using his phone, Tennent alerted Alyssa that they were ready to be pulled in. Thanks to her help, they made it back to the Main building and collapsed on the floor.

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:05 PM**

**The Mountain Sector**

Hawk jumped into the air, drew his bō, and slashed downward at a Tarantula. I watched it change from a silver solid to a blue plasma as it came in contact with the monster. It was cleaved clean in half and mustered only a weak fizz as it died.

With the way now clear, Sean raced into the Tower like Brittany's life depended on it. For all we knew, it did.

"Great job!" I complemented my friend. "You learn really fast."

"Thanks-" his response was cut off by a screech that I knew all too well. The Scyphozoa!

I tried to warn Hawk, but before I could do or say anything, something hit me from behind. At first I didn't realize what it was. Then I saw a creature detach itself from the mountainside and lumber towards me. It was some kind of rock monster!

It shading blended perfectly with the Sector's landscape, which made it hard to see. It appeared to have two large legs protruding from a generally circular body. It was about five feet tall, and maybe eight feet across. It looked like a rather simple monster; I didn't see any teeth, lasers, claws, or any other instruments of doom attached to it.

I wasn't given any more time to think about how to fight it. It pounced on me and I lashed it with my claws, but it hardly seemed to notice. I fell to the ground and jumped me again, this time clamping me between its feet and crushing me with its body. I was immobilized!

Then the Scyphozoa appeared on the scene, flanked by two Slythers. _This is it, _I thought. _I'm done for._

To my surprise, the code-sucking monster slinked right by me without a second glance. It took me a moment to realize what was going on. _It's headed for Hawk!_

Hawk was paralyzed too, but not by a rock monster. The sudden appearance of both the Scyphozoa and Slythers after a seeming victory must have frozen him in fear.

"ANAX!" I eked out. "_Do something!"_

I saw the frames of a few Droids appear in the air, poised to land around Hawk, but the Slythers literally jumped up and tore them apart before they had touched the ground. The Scyphozoa snatched Hawk up in its tentacles.

I struggled desperately and tried to get free of my captor. He wasn't budging.

The Tower faded from red to white, and Sean stepped out the Tower. He looked around in shock. Sean, however, is much more stable than Hawk and recovered quickly. He sprinted over to me and jabbed his sword into the rock. XANA's minion screeched in pain, and as it spasmed, I struggled free. From my new position, I could see its Eye on the underbelly. I slashed it with my claws and then sprinted towards Hawk. "Send more Droids ANAX!" I yelled.

"I can't!" He sounded flustered. "I don't have enough resources!"

"What do you mean? What have you been doing?"

I was out of time; the Slythers were upon us. I dodged the first attack from its tail by rolling to the side. This gave me a good position to use my Lyoko Power of leaping to try and cut the tentacles. In hindsight, this was a poor decision. The Slyther threw out its claw and caught be dead-on. I was flung backwards with a gaping hole in my digital envelope. The last thing I remembered was sailing off the edge of the platform and towards the Digital Sea.

* * *

><p>I woke up in a Scanner. I saw that Sean had fallen out onto the floor. We had failed… again.<p>

**Thursday, October 18****th****, 2057 AD**

**2:49 PM**

**Sammy and Hawk's Dorm**

The wind died the moment that Sean deactivated the Tower. Half an hour passed before the firefighters declared that it was safe to return to normal activities. Apparently they had pinpointed the "malfunction" in the experimental lab. School was still cancelled for the rest of the day.

So there we were, in my dorm, retelling the events.

"Wait…" Brittany said. "So what actually happened? Hawk doesn't have the codes in him that XANA can use, right?"

"To be honest," I answered, "I have no idea what happened. I don't know what XANA got or what he achieved.

"It's possible that the vDNA alone created from virtualization is enough for XANA to generate a new Sector. But I was under the impression that that only worked because it was augmented with the energy from the Core of Lyoko…"

I paused for a moment, thinking of how that could work. "Anyway," I said at last. "ANAX is running some calculations. Hopefully we'll know more when he's finished."

"Do we need a return in time?" Sean asked.

"No one got hurt," Alyssa said. "And the damage to the school was pretty minimal, so I don't think so."

"Plus I think we've given XANA enough satisfaction for today, huh, guys?" Tennent asked us forlornly.

**Author's Notes: So. What did XANA get from Hawk? Why did the Scyphozoa go after him in the first place? What do you think of Hawk as a character? How do you like the character development for Holly? I'd like to know!**

**Now I have a test this Monday, so I doubt that I'll be able to work any more on this until after that. I do have a test that Thursday as well, so I would be happy with getting the next chapter out by this time next week. It's gonna be really exciting though! I've been waiting for this chapter for ****_months! _**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

- Interlude 1

**Friday, October 19****th****, 2057 AD**

**11:42 PM**

**Kadic Academy Entrance**

The smooth hiss of the rain striking the ground set the tone of a dark scene. In the distance, thunder rumbled following the crash of lightning, but it seemed muted by the gloom of the dark gray clouds. The rain intensified. The world itself was in lament. A streetlight flickered weakly as if reacting to the man that stepped into the night.

Tufts of his spiky, stark white hair poked out the bottom of a wide-brimmed hat that was soaked by the downpour. He pulled a dark trench coat about his body, though he could not feel the cold. He'd forgotten the sensation long ago.

He was not in any rush; each step he took was slow and purposeful. His brightly colored eyes surveyed his surroundings from under the hat, gathering data quickly and efficiently. The street before him appeared to be deserted.

He plodded out, entering the light cast by a hanging streetlight. Unexpectedly, he heard a voice call out. "Hey, you!" It said. "What are you doing here?!" This irritated the man. He was not used to unexpected happenings.

A big man with brown hair wearing a green tracksuit approached the figure. "This is school property! You're not a student. You're not allowed to be here, especially not at this hour!"

He stopped walking and put his hands into the large pockets of his trench coat to caress an object, but didn't say anything.

The man in green was now within arms reach. He appeared to be quite disheveled. "I asked you what you're doing here," he repeated.

In reply, he whispered, "_Whol natha drada mayar."_

"What?" his oppressor demanded irritably.

He sucked in a breath, creating the sound that a snake makes as it flicks its tongue. Quickly, the sound was cut off as he caught himself in his old habit. "Nothing," he answered, barely loud enough to be heard above the rain. His voice was like ice, freezing to the core. The man questioning him took a step back, clearly affected by the sound of the single word.

"I could ask you the same question," he continued as he tightened his grip on the cold steel in his pocket. His apprehender recovered from his shock and became aggressive. "Now you listen here!" The man grabbed his arm and the one with white hair was done with the game.

As soon as his shoulder was touched, he jerked free, kicked his assailant in the stomach, and sprang into a backflip with super-human agility. He landed with a frightening precision and withdrew a gleaming handgun from his pocket. In a microsecond, much faster than a normal person could react, he took aim and fired.

He knew that the sharp crack of the gunshot would be heard throughout the neighborhood. He instantly calculated his route and sprinted away, leaving the crumpled figure in a quickly growing pool of blood.

**Monday, October 22****nd****, 2057 AD**

**8:13 PM**

**Hotel Le Bristol, Paris, France**

Days had passed. Long days. 10 kilometers didn't seem like much, but when traveling through alleys, dealing with thugs, and stealing money to survive off of, the distance seemed to span the country.

The white-haired man had found that despite his modifications, his body still grew tired and required sustenance. It seemed that his body regained energy simply through inactivity. He had rented a hotel room with extorted money so he could allow it to rest.

The meeting with the human outside of the school was unfortunate, he thought, but probably irrelevant. The news was not likely to make it past the local channels, and certainly nobody in this wealthy area of Paris would pay such reports any mind.

He began to clean himself up. It was not difficult to operate what was called the shower, and he found the sensation of bathing quite odd. He noted the profuse dependence on water that this society had. After cleaning all the dirt and grime off of himself, he took a trip to the in-house shopping mall and purchased some less conspicuous clothing. He avoided all articles that looked complex; whatever he was wearing would have to be functional.

On his way out of the store, he passed a mirror. His hair hung in spikes around his head, drawing attention away from his bright red eyes. In the light, they weren't that noticeable.

After of moment of examining himself, he decided that a change of clothes was all that was necessary. Besides, he rather liked his new hairstyle.

* * *

><p>Hours went by as he fiddled with the Holographic TV's remote. <em>The humans' technology is impressive<em>, he marveled. It had advanced significantly since he had last seen the state of the planet.

The man changed the channel to the global news and gently set the remote down on the nightstand with a light *click.* While the reports were informative, he was surprised at how trivial many of the matters discussed were. He could not grasp the concept of why the humans cared what a certain singer had done at a festival.

He consulted his clock and realized that the time had come. It was after midnight, and he was far more likely to find what he was looking for now.

Adopting a complete focus, he donned his new garments, shut off the television, and walked out of the hotel with exact precision in his steps.

Outside, thousands of distractions ran rampant through his vision. Despite the lateness of the hour, hundreds of lights flashed, vehicles drove by, and people bustled about on the streets. It was, however, noticeably less crowded than when he had arrived, covered in dust and running on emergency power.

Checking his position to ensure that he would not get lost, he set off northwardly. He didn't have to go far before he found a shady establishment with a sign reading "Aliments et boissons," above the beaten door. He would begin here.

Inside, it was dark. His eyes immediately adjusted and he took a full sweep of his surroundings. Dim lights were scattered haphazardly around the floor, provided just enough light to see where you were going.

The eatery was small in comparison to others in the area, but it was still reasonably sized. Small groups competed in games of chance at different stations around the building, while others sat at tables, carousing. _Despicable, _he thought.

He confidently strode up to the near-empty bar and took a seat next to a heavily bearded man. In shock, the man staggered to his feet, spilling his drink as he scurried away. The man with the red eyes was confused. He looked around and realized that the entire restaurant had become totally silent. He allowed nothing but frost to show in his facial expression. Slowly, he swiveled the chair back around to the bar and announced, "I would like a drink."

No one came to serve him.

Disgusted but not impatient, he rang the bell to summon a waiter. The building was still dead quiet.

Suddenly, he heard the door at the front of the store slam against the wall. Three burly men stood in its frame and everyone in the area focused their attention on them.

With a face like ice, the man watched as the gang lumbered over to his seat. For a moment, they simply stared at each other.

Thug A, the leader, puffed on his cigar before saying pompously, "You must be new around here." He didn't answer, and instead, analyzed everything about them. All of them had shaved heads and the leader sported dark-gray stubble around his mouth. The smallest one had biceps the size of an average man's thigh, while the largest was basically a tree. They all wore ratty, worn out clothes and coats, all bearing a common symbol. The man was unable to identify what the symbol could represent; it appeared to be nonsense.

Thug A continued, "Because you obviously don't know the rules."

The man remained silent, staring hardly into the eyes of the lead punk.

"I think I'm in a good mood," Thug A continued obliviously, "so I'll give you 10 seconds to get the heck out of my bar."

The man still remained motionless. The group seemed taken aback. The full ten seconds expired as the wondered at the man who dared to defy them.

Thug B crunched his face into a frown and shouted, "Time's UP!" He rushed forwards with a fist raised. The man remained frozen until the very last instant before the thug could hit him. Reacting like lightning, too fast to even be seen, the man with white hair snatched the thug's fist out the air and stuck out a foot to divert him away. The attacker crashed to the floor, stunned, while his target sat calmly on the barstool, seeming to not have moved. Gasps were heard across the floor.

Thug A was not put off. "So you think you're hot stuff, do ya?" he demanded superfluously. "Well I think-" he was not given the chance to finish. The man leaped off of the stool, soaring high into the air. He planted his hands on the shoulders of the leader and swept his legs around 360 degrees, catching the third member with a powerful blow to the side of the head.

With ninja-like skills, he dropped to the floor and kicked the leader's legs out from underneath him and pinned him to the ground.

"Now you will listen to me," he whispered with a frigid voice. "Nobody… _nobody _gets in my way."

The ruffian on the ground whimpered in fear, "Please don't hurt me!"

"You're pathetic," the white-haired man continued without raising his voice. "You think you know power? Think again." Like a snake, he struck with bone-crushing force to the upper arm of his captive. The crack of the bone was clearly audible, but the crowd of onlookers gaped in amazement as bright red electricity sparked forth from the impact.

With a single hand, the mysterious man tossed the gang leader the 20 feet to the door and returned to his seat.

Within a minute, a pretty young lady appeared in front of him and the activities seemed to have returned to normal. "Can I get you a drink, sir?" She asked timidly.

"I'm not here for any alcohol," he said flatly.

"Oh," she replied. A silence stretched out.

"What's your name?" she asked.

His eyes flickered statically for a long moment before he answered, "ZiEk."

"Well, Zeke," the waitress said. "What _can _I do for you?"

"I'm here for… information. Specifically the illegal type. Do you know where I can find that?"

"No," she responded instantly. "But…" She hesitated. She saw the look in his eyes and seemed to replay the events of the fight. "I know who cantell you that though. I'll be right back," she said decisively as she disappeared into the back of the store.

It wasn't very long before a fat, greasy old man in a sloppy chef's uniform stepped out. "My girl tells me you're looking for Black Info?"

"You could say that," he confirmed.

"Well then there's only one place that you need to go…"

* * *

><p>For the second time that evening Zeke stepped into a scum ridden bar. This one was no better lit, but seemed to be cleaner. However, the patrons seemed… nastier.<p>

Following instructions he took a seat in the third booth from the far wall. When a waiter noticed him, he said, "Someone will be with you shortly."

Sure enough, a man in a grungy suit stopped by his table. He was the nicest dressed man Zeke had seen since he had left the hotel. The man had a well-trimmed beard and dark brown eyes. His suit appeared to be a shade of blue, but Zeke couldn't really tell because of the lighting, and the condition of the suit. He was of average build, but his presence commanded some authority.

"My name is Alexandre. How can I serve you tonight, sir?" He asked Zeke.

"I'd like to have the _interrogativo nero_ wine today," Zeke said.

"Right away," Alexandre made as if to leave, but stopped and turned around. "Are you here alone?" He asked.

"My ears are my own, and my company is solitary." Zeke recited.

"I see," his server replied. "How would you like your wine aged?"

"As old as you've got," Zeke answered. "No price is too high."

Satisfied, Alexandre walked off.

An unreasonable amount of time passed before he was brought his drink, which he found distasteful. He managed to down the beverage and he heard a quiet *beep* from under the table. As inconspicuously as he could, Zeke grabbed the key card that had been dispensed and pocketed it. Shortly thereafter, he left the bar.

Referring to his mental notes, he found the doorway and slid the key card though the lock. The door opened and he found Alexandre waiting for him.

"What would you like to know?" He opened without preamble.

Zeke took a deep breath and asked, "What can you tell me about Green Phoenix and Project Carthage?"

Alexandre smiled. "You, my friend," he said to Zeke, "have come to the right place."

**Author's Notes: This chapter is designed to be a little confusing. If you've been paying attention, you should probably be able to make a few connections, or at least suspect something.  
>I have an awful lot of references to "the man" whether it be "the man with white hair" or what have you. This comes from us not having a name for this character for well over half of the chapter, and makes it a bit more confusing than in needs to be. I you have any suggestions on cleaning this up, I'd love to hear them.<br>Other than that, I'm really pleased with this and can't wait to hear everyone's confused input. =)**


	12. CURRENT PROGRESS

Hey guys... I know it's been quite a long time since I've updating this. College has been pretty crazy lately. I'm still planning on finishing this story.

If you're anxious for updates, send me a PM or something to try and nudge me. =P

I hope to be getting back to this soon. =)


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